What I have learned in 2007

1. Everything happens according to God's plan.

2. Being content with what the Lord has blessed me with, instead of always wanting so much more.

3. I am blessed with some pretty extraordinary children! Brooke and Tyler both got straight A's. Nick doesn't get grades yet but he got all high scores! They have so many talents and gifts. The Lord has great plans for their lives.

4. Change isn't easy, but it can be a blessing in the end.

5. Girlfriends can bring you through even the hardest of times (Amy, Sunny, Karma, Diana and my sister Christina)

6. When you hear that small voice telling you something....you should listen and discern....if it aligns with God's word...it is the Holy Spirit. LISTEN!

7. Prayer is powerful. Pray, Pray, and Pray some more.

8. Working from home is the best job in the world...and I kinda took it for granted. How I long to be working from home again.

9. Even after all these years in the business, I still LOVE scrapbooking more and more!

10. My parents were right about how preteens turn into miserable creatures to live with! It has only just begun with Brooke...but I am praying that I will be able to keep an open communication and loving relationship with her even through these difficult years.


2007 was one of the hardest years of my life. Leaving Prints went out of business....which in turn took away my entire income. I ended up having to go back to work as a substitute teacher.

Our studio was flooded in Feb when a water pipe froze and burst and did over 200 thousand dollars in damage. I spent countless hours with the remodel and had to sacrifice so much family time. Things are moving along at the studio....we are nearly finished with the remodel and it is just beautiful!

Due to the children department lacking we felt the call to change churches and searched for a month to find a new church home. It was a hard change and we don't get to see our old church family as much as I would like...but we now have a whole new church family and are truly blessed by every aspect of our new church home. Praise the Lord that when we left our old church some changes were made and now they are thriving again as well!

Even among all of the chaos and hard times...the Lord was at work and I saw his fingerprintes nearly everyday. I know that it all happened for a reason.

Leaving Prints Closed and I lost a very good income- but now instead of trying to get rich...I have learned to be content with what I have. Karma, Sunny and I have put our scrapbook industry expertise into an even better use by starting www.faithsisters.com which has truly been a blessing to us...and to all of the sisters that have joined! Had we still been with LP then we may have never moved on with this endeavor.

The Studio was ruined- now we have a newly remodled studio!

Had to leave our old church family but have gained a new family and feel so at home at our new church.

Did I see the blessing right when it was happening? Absolutely not! But the Lord was never far away. Every time I felt overwhelmed I just went straight to prayer...and he kept giving me those little reminders that I needed....those fingerprints to show me that he was right there leading me along the path He wanted me to take.

I am looking forward to a blessed and great 2008!

So what did you learn in 2007?

Thankful For My Family

The past few weeks have been so busy that I haven't been blogging much. It was good busy though because most of the time has been spent with family...doing family stuff!

We had Thanksgiving at my moms house. There were a total of 29 of us gathered together for Thanskgiving dinner. It was a fabulous day of yummy food and family fun. The rest of the weekend was spent visiting with my little sister who was in from Atlanta. Whenever Julie is visiting we spends lots of time playing Canasta. It is our favorite card game ever! We only had time for a couple of games during the whole weekend cause we also spent a lot of time shopping!

The day after Thanksgiving...otherwise known as Black Friday...Christina, Brooke and I got up at 3:30am. We shopped the day away. That was until we had to sneak Christina off to her getaway.

Brent had booked a special weekend at the Blennerhasset hotel for their anniversary. Christina had no idea. Julie and I went over the night before and packed a bag of her stuff. While we were out shopping, Brent got everything ready and the plan was to meet him there by 3pm at the hotel. We were to bring Christina into the hotel lobby where the only Starbucks in the whole town is located. Julie was to pretend that she had a Starbucks craving. Well we couldn't get Christina to stop shopping! Finally we got her away from the store and headed to Starbucks. Brent was there waiting. His car was in the parking lot. Christina was riding with mom in her car. Brooke and I were driving my van. I pulled into the Blennerhasset parking lot and immediately saw that Brent had parked right in the front of the lot. So I started to turn to go out of the lot so that mom would follow me...and she didn't but instead went right up beside of Brent's car and parked. I alerted Julie about the car by pointing as discreetly as possible! We thought mom had realized too....but apparently she hadn't. Julie and I had tried to get everyone to follow us, Julie was walking by Christina trying to block her site of the car! Mom was trying to get us to walk right in the direction of the car...eventually she decided to follow us! We got Christina in and when she saw Brent she said..what are you doing here! Needless to say she was super surprised. She had no idea what else he had in store for her. At 6pm we were all to meet them at the Actors Guild for a play "The Pump Boys and The Dinettes". She was really shocked when they walked into the actors guild and there we were!

The play was really good. We all really enjoyed it...even Chad liked it!

I don't have any pictures to share because my camera is broken. :(

Christina had a great time on her anniversary! She is lucky to have such a great husband who plans fun surprises like that for her!

Things I love and Things I don't like

Things I love...
Jesus, pickles, my hubby, my kids, talking, being a mother, Gods Word, pedicures, scrapbooking, our church, reading, a clean house, necklaces, blogging, diamonds, talking, sweet tea, massages, talking (but not during a massage), being with my friends, KLOVE, vacations, Casting Crowns, mexican food, fonts, Oliver Garden minestrone and salad, Dr. Pepper, the beach, Canasta, eBay, Live Concerts, Google, scrapbook conventions, my parents, American Idol, my preschool kids, the magic eraser, my laptop, my lazyboy loveseat recliner, fresh vegetables from my earthboxes, cheeseburger soup, pickles, shoes, hanging out with family, Girl Trips and Mustang Convertibles.

Things I Don’t Like...
Clutter, bugs, dust, long lines, sassy preteens, math,people chewing with their mouth open, politics, smacking gum, commercials, being late,chipped nail polish, barking dogs, complaining, jealous people, cold weather, cleaning and bills.