Slowly getting back to "NORMAL"

What is normal anyway? Can you actually have a normal life after you lose your child? I really don't think this can actually happen, you can only adjust and go on with life the best way you know how. I haven't stamped or done anything crafty in several weeks now. When Lauren Meader called and talked to me and I found out about this digi stamp, The Weiman Wranglers, for my little cowboy and cowgirl, Ethan & Ava, I was beyond excited and my wheels actually started turning again! Melissa with Pink Cat Studio generously and quickly designed these perfect little images to represent my little boy and girl. Thank you so much Melissa & Lauren...they are just awesome. These images are raising money to go towards the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Illinois. This is the reason we have 2 horses and a minature burrow that my kids like to call a "little ass" thanks to their Daddy! It's a great organization that provides kids with wonderful things. Lauren's little girl Alexa received a wish too as well as so many others. I encourage you to hop over to Pink Cat Studio and purchase these cute little images and support a great organization.

I just downloaded my pictures from my camera of this little memory book that I made for myself to share quotes and little things from my Ethan that I never want to forget. I'm not quite back into my creative mode yet, but someday I will be. This image captures Ethan perfectly though, he always wore his black cowboy hat, a button up shirt, his "seat" belt, blue jeans, and of course his cowboy boots with his socks pulled up. Ethan loved balloons too and the red bandana is something that he wore so much this past winter to keep his mouth warm. I'm a little prejudice, but I had the most "handsome" little boy ever! He hated to be called "cute" so I had to watch myself!

Here is one of my favorite picture of Ethan and me...his proud Mommy! Hope all of you have a wonderful weekend. Thanks again so much for all the prayers and support!

Back to say THANK YOU!

Well, it's been just a week since we lost our little boy Ethan, but it seems like an eternity since I've held him in my arms and kissed his sweet little face. It's been an emotional week of ups and downs, but all in all I think we are all doing very well. We got to see so many people at Ethan's visitation and the place was just filled with balloons. There were over 80 bunches of balloons and we let most of them go afterwards so Ava was able to take part and say a special message to her Ethan. She misses him so very much. Tuesday was Ethan's service and it was just perfect. The sermon was so personable and it just made us reflect on how special our little boy was and still is to us. we let balloons go at the cemetary too. Ava has been such a trooper through all of this and talks about Ethan everyday. Here are some wonderful things that Ava thinks of when she talks about Ethan.



"Mommy, does Ethan have a pool up in heaven?"
"Mommy, is GOD holding Ethan?"
"Ethan just jumped into his pool in the clouds....Mommy, is it raining?"
"Mommy, does GOD have a car, what color is it?"
"Mommy, what color house does GOD have?"
"Mommy, I miss my Ethan"
"Is Ethan going to be here for his birthday?"



She misses him so, but we have tried to explain how he is up in heaven now with GOD and is all better. We have a ton of home videos and so many pictures to keep the memories of him alive forever.



Here is the picture that we chose to put in the paper and also on his card at the funeral home. It showed Ethan with his perfect smile riding his horse, an activity that he loved so well. We chose the Cowboy Rodeo Prayer as we thought this was very fitting for our Ethan. He loved to go to the rodeo and we took a family vacation to Texas at the end of February and it was all about our cowboy. Ethan loved going to rodeos so this seemed so fitting.

In Loving Memory of Our Cowboy Ethan

From the Cowboy's Rodeo Prayer:

Our gracious and heavenly Father.....

When we take the last ride,

That we know is inevitable,

To the country up there-

Where the grass is green and lush

and stirrup high,

And the water runs clean and clear;

We pray that you will tell us,

as our last judge,

That our entry fees are paid.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Thank you so much to all the wonderful bloggers that have left such kind messages to our family. We appreciate all of the prayers coming our way. A big thank you to Lauren's DT team that has started a fund for Ethan's memorial and sent balloons for Ethan too. Lauren has another surprise too that she'll reveal in a few short days just made my day. These girls are the best. Here's a link to all of their blogs:

Lauren

Dana

Dawn

Jennifer

Kendra

Lisa

MacKenzie

Maria

Odette

Pam

Tamara

Tracey

Hopefully I will get back to my stamping soon. Until then......Happy Stampin! Alicia

To Everything there is a season

We are trying to adjust to the news that we heard this past week. Our son Ethan has been battling neuroblastoma cancer for almost 2 years now. We found out that we have no other options to help him with his disease and we are coming home today to keep our boy comfortable at home. It's amazing as I'm sitting right next to him as I type this and he is painting some wooden cars with blue and red paint. We've moved on from painting cars now to painting the hospital table.....I'm sure we've paid for it! He still makes us laugh!

Don't worry, someday I'll be back to this stamping world....that is what got me through all of this in the first place. I wouldn't be on here now except Ethan was needing a little time to himself because he was mad that we had to give him some oral medicine! Thanks so much to all of you that I have never met that have prayed for my son and our family. Here's one of my favorite pictures of Ethan.

To everything there is a season,

a time for every purpose under the sun.

A time to be born and a time to die;

a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

a time to kill and a time to heal

...a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn and a time to dance

...a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to lose and a time to seek;

a time to rend and a time to sew;

a time to keep silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate;

a time for war and a time for peace.
ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Lauren's Technique Challenge.....Embossing Vellum

Here's my little sneak peak!

This seemed to be a tough challenge for just about everyone as there were a lot of questions e-mailed about on this challenge. I will say that I've never done this technique before, but I do like the possibilities that you can do with this. I wanted to use my new set from PTI, Star Prints. I went with a patriotic theme, but am going to use this card for one of the graduation parties that we are invited to. The colors I used are SU's Night of Navy, Real Red, and PTI's white and vellum cardstock. The first thing I did was cut out a piece of vellum card stock and I stamped the stars with versamark. I then added dazzling diamonds before it dried to add a little bling. Next I flipped the paper over and traed the outlines of the stars with my stylus to give it an embossed outline. I finished my paper by added some red and blue tiny stars. The frame for the vellum was a rectangle cut 1/4" larger on each side and then I start with a square punch and cut the remainder out with my paper cutter to create a handmade frame. I punched out little stars and added to the centers of my glittered stars with some stamping dimensionals.

On the home front, I'm typing this on Tuesday morning as things seem to be getting complicated around here. Yesterday was good in the morning, but the afternoon and evening weren't so great. We're still working on getting pain medication at a level that will control my son's pain and something to relieve his stomach ache. It's probably going to be a long week so I thought I would get this ready to go. Hope you enjoy my creations and be sure to check out what everyone else has this week to:

Lauren

Dana G

Kristin

Pam

Tamara Harder

Tracey Cuccia

Maria

Mackenzie

Best Day (in a long time!)

My son is feeling so much better today! This is the best day we have had with him in a very long time. Ava, Ethan, and I are playing legos....I had to take a quick break! He is smiling and just acting like his old self. He's been 3 days now off of the medicine that makes him feel so yucky....I imagine we'll start back up on it today, but we'll just take things one day at a time. Here's a picture of me and the kiddos last night. I had to talk Ethan into smiling for this pic, but not today. He's eating too! Miracles really do happen!

Splash of Color Challenge

It's time for Lauren's Color Challenge! Above is a sneak peak of everyone's projects for this week. This was a fun set of colors to combine. The colors I chose were all from PTI, Rasberry Fizz, Summer Sunshine, Berry Sorbet, Aqua Mist, and Spring Moss. The first thing I wanted to use was a strawberry from one of my favorite PTI sets: Green Thumb. This is one of the most versatile sets. Below is our list of colors to incorporate in our card for this week.

Here is what I came up with. This card looks so summery to me. I even got out my needle and thread and sewed a little button on it.

On the home front.....life has been so stressful. Ethan still doesn't feel good and today marks 4 weeks of this. It's more than frustrating to him and to us. The doctor wants us to try cutting back on his meds and see if that helps a bit....I sure hope it does because we miss seeing our bubbly Ethan. We did take him to the new movie Night at the Museum 2 this afternoon and he seemed to like it, but after it was over he really felt bad. We just keep plugging along.....one day at a time. We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend here at home. We do have to make a trip to the hospital tomorrow for Ethan to get some platelets, but hopefully that will be all of the hospital fun for one weekend. Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to stop by and see the other gals creations!

Dana G
Dawn Easton
Jennifer
Kendra
Kristen
Lisa
MacKenzie
Odette
Pam
Tamara Harder
Tracey Cuccia

Pink Butterflies with Bling!

I cased my original card so I could make it work for stamp club tonight. This butterfly is from the Great Friend set from SU's mini catalog. The colors are Pink Pirouette, Kraft, and white. I used Pink Pirouette desinger series paper for the background and I got out my cuttlebug to cut out the background pieces and then I embossed them as well. Three Little Words is a text set from SU that is very cute.

I'm always posting as I try to get my kids down for a nap. Hopefully they will get some rest today. Ethan has had a rough day of not feeling well. This medicine is just for the birds. I wish we didn't have to give it to him, but it seems to be helping out his cancer. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend are coming shortly to watch my kiddos for a bit while I got and get a very needed hair cut. I'm getting it chopped! It has gotten pretty long and all I seem to do is put it in a pony tail. Hopefully this will give me a little pick me up!

The rest of the week is pretty busy so I don't know if you'll see me back here until Sat morning with Lauren's challenge.....until then, Happy Stampin!