GASC update & wedding pics

My friend Val and I went to the Great American Scrapbook Convention this past weekend in Chantilly, VA. We were there Friday - Sunday! YEs, we stayed overnight!!! We had a great time shopping and cropping all weekend. I must say that I did better this year with my budget and only went over on my budget because of 2 new tools I purchased. I bought one of those big tape runners because I used it in my class (Celebrating Sisterhood) and loved it! I also purchased the UNIBIND system that binds hard bound books. You have to purchase the hard bound books from them, but what's cool is you can heat up the spine and bind the book, then if you change your mind you can heat it up and pull the pages out! How cool is that!?!? You can put any kind of paper in the books, including page protectors! I was sold...this will be my new way of binding my digital books and I might just use the system for traditional scrapbooking too....

Friday night we met up with some friends for the crop - Sam, Kim, Shelly and Cindy. I lasted until 10pm and was wiped out. We were having so much fun that I totally forgot to take pics!!!! I was working on our Disney album and was mezmerized by my cool pics with all the Disney Characters - Ha ha.

Saturday we met up with a new friend that we met last year - Natalie. So the 3 of us sat together at the Saturday night crop. I wasn't very productive Saturday night. Think I left my mojo on the shopping floor.....but did manage to get a few pages done in the album. Ah, but we did take a few pics at the crop! You can see how tired I am....

All in all it was a good weekend, but I was ready to go home and rescue my husband. My parents came up for a visit from Florida and arrived Friday night and he was stuck with them all weekend. They kept him busy doing "honey do's" around the house though!!!

My sister got her pics from the photographer BUT she wants to pick out the ones SHE likes and wants to use in the album. So I'm still waiting to finish her album. Here's a pic of her with her new hubby and my parents.

Forever in our hearts

Pawsie Lippert

5/1/91 - 6/12/08

On Tuesday we noticed that Pawsie was hiding and not wanting to part of what's going on in the house then he did this really deep down meow and we knew there was something wrong. So I made an appt for Wednesday with the vet. Since then he was getting weaker and started laying on his belly and not his side - that was very unusual. Right before I left for the vet he jumped down and again did the deep down meowing (this is what he does before he gets sick, yet he didn't get sick) and this time I noticed a really bad smell (very bad gas, which is usual for him).

Off to the vet's office we went and they did several tests on him and found out he was extremely anemic but didn't know why or how. So they sent me home with him and some antibiotics to wait for blood test results. That night was the worst night ever. Pawsie meowed most of the night and didn't move and when he did, he was very weak. I slept closeby and everytime he meowed I came over and petted him and talked to him. It was the most heartwrenching meows like he was crying for help and I couldn't help him. So I did the next best thing and comforted him.

I called the vet first thing that morning and although she was off and on her way to michigan she talked to me and we decided that Pawsie needed to go see an internist. After all was said and done, we headed to Bowie, which was an hour drive. He only meowed once the entire ride there.

The news wasn't good - they had to do a blood transfusion and several other tests but first they had to stabilize him because he had lost more blood during the night through his bowels. The dr explained everything and we were willing to pay whatever we had to for Pawsie.

We left the vets office at 1:40pm yesterday and at 2:40pm she called while I was driving and said "I have bad news - he just died" I immediately handed the phone to John and broke down in tears. Thankfully we were at a red light and we weren't moving. We were only a few miles from home so I drove the rest of the way and just broke down more when I walked in the door.

Pawsie was the best cat you'd ever have - we use to say that if we could clone him, we would. He was nice, caring, loveable, talkative, snuggly, and fun to play with. He always slept with us and especially took care of me - we took care of each other. Pawsie wasn't just a cat, he was our oldest "child", a brother to our other cats, and mostly he was my best friend.

Before I left the vet's office I told Pawsie that I loved him very much and for him to be strong. I also told him if he had to go, then to go and I know he will be in a better place and out of pain. Pawsie is now in heaven with his twin brother Spanky who died 10 years ago.

I know he's in a better place now and enjoying all the wet food and outdoor time he wants and is running and playing with Spanky. We decided to have Pawsie creamated and should have his ashes back in about a week - I know that will be hard to handle but it's something we had talked about several times and want to get an urn with both Pawsie and Spanky's picture on it. I am truly thankful to have gotten a chance to know and love Pawsie as deeply as I do - he taught me alot about unconditional love and I know his spirit will live on within me and his brothers.

Pawsie will forever live in our hearts and I truly miss him. I love you Pawsie.......

Tornado update

We've been having alot of thunderstorms the past few weeks and last night was the worst storms yet - we had 3 storms come through and the 2nd and 3rd storms caused tornados in the area. A friend called me and told me to take cover because they were reporting tornados in my neighborhood and 5 minutes later the storms intensified. Luckily we didn't have a tornado but another friend about 20 miles away was hit in her neighborhood. Her house only sustained some roof damage but her neighbors weren't so lucky and had their entire garage damaged and another neighbor had a tree on their house going right through their daughter's bedroom.

If you look at this map, we live between the 2 red dots at the bottom and were right in the line of the tornados. All the blue dots represent reports of heavy rains and the yellow dots are heavy winds.

The scary part about these storms and tornados is that we don't typically have tornados here in Maryland - that's for people out in Kansas and the midwest! What is happening with our weather lately?????

We were lucky and I count my blessings that we only had some small trees and branches down in our yard from the storms. We did check for more water damage and we didn't see anything. The bad news is that more storms are due to come through later today and this weekend.

Good news - I don't have to worry about watering my garden and flowers! Ha ha

Hope everyone is okay in the local area - I sent a few emails out to some friends in the areas that were hit and hoping to hear back from everyone soon.

I did come to work this morning only to walk in and find the power out in our building and it was out for a few hours so we're just now getting going and we have a command picnic this afternoon so it's a lost day. I should have stayed in bed, huh?

a few random thoughts...

John took this picture of my hydrangea and I just think it's so pretty. This is the memorial plant for my grandmother, who was very special to me.

I had a nice anniversary yesterday - nothing fancy, just a night at home and he made dinner and we just sat and talked. He absolutely LOVED his diving scrapbook and said "and all I got you were chocolates" oh boy, they are GOOD chocolates though!!!

I received my Arbonne order today and can't wait to start using the products. If you're not familiar with arbonne, they have all natural products such as skin care, weight loss, hair, and more. I even bought some weight loss chews - they're chocolate flavored and taste like chocolate taffy!!!! YUMMY! You can see more of the arbonne products and read about them. I signed up as a consultant so let me know if you're interested in anything!!! :-)

I started taking a new multivitamin on Friday that also has extra herbs in it for energy. Boy oh boy, it's really working! I have definitely noticed an increase in my energy and I went the entire weekend without a nap (which is alot for me) and without sitting for several hours on the couch!!! WOOHOO! Finally, something that works and is helping my fibro!

I received more registration forms for the Scrapping for Soldiers and Scrapbooking for Scholarships crops I'm organizing. Even cooler is they sent out an email to over 1000 people on base today about the Scrapbooking for Scholarships crop because it's for the American Society of Military Comptrollers - and it listed me in the email with a kudos for being the organizer! Just tickled me pink PLUS I had a few people email me telling me they would like to attend - woohooo!!!!

I'm really missing crops lately - haven't been to a crop since May 3rd.....seems like forever! LOL

The Great American Scrapbook Convention is June 20-21 and I can't wait! I'm going with my friend Val Friday and we're staying up there through Sunday - wohooo! And the best part is that I'm a scrapper and not working it so I'll be able to have fun.

My parents are coming for a visit from Florida and unfortunately arriving the day I leave for the convention and will be here until the following week (which is my SFS crop). Hey, I marked off 2 weeks in July like Mom requested and they moved it to June so it was outta my control. So I'll only see them during the week after work. That's okay though - they have friends they can visit and they'll be golfing I'm sure!!!

I heard back from our homeowner's insurance and they will not cover the water damage and mold caused by the heavy rains. John and I have decided to replace the windows ourselves and repair the drywall too. Hey, take advantage of my parents coming to visit - this is the perfect project for them!!!

Since john has screened in the back deck, Pawsie thinks he is required to go outside and stay on the deck for hours. He loves it out there and so do the other kitties. Scrappy is the only one right now that can't be trusted - he likes to jump up on the railing and from there he can escape the screened in area, which is not good and involves immediate grounding of all kitties from the deck for the remainder of the day. Between the deck time and the wet food, our kitties are spoiled more and more!!!!

Every few years I go through a phase that I want to see if there's new information out there about fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue to see if there's something that works for me. So I ordered a few more books from Amazon and received a few yesterday. Last night I read about a D-Ribose that is suppose to help with energy and body pains and you'll notice results in less than 2 weeks - hey, worth trying! So I'm excited about this!!!!

That's about it for now....more ramblings later ;-)

Happy 18th Anniversary

Today is our 18th Anniversary - wow, I can't believe it's been 18 years! Although we've had our ups and downs, it's been a great 18 years!

And I can't wait for john to see the diving album I made with all his pics from Japan and Guam!!!!!

Here's a few then and now pics for you to laugh at.....

Happy Anniversary John!!!!

Water Damage

Well, they say having a basement is not a good thing and now we know. We've had alot of heavy rains in the past 3 weeks and yesterday I was organizing our computer/scrapbooking room and saw a molded spider (we always have dead bugs in our basement, which is gross but this was unusual because it was green and molded). So I asked John to look at it and then we looked behind the desk and there were more molded bugs. Well, we moved the desk and filing cabinets and found the carpet wet so we pulled the carpet back. Yep, the water had come in through the sides of the 2 small windows we have in the basement. So, we but some of the drywall back so we could take a closer look. Luckily it wasn't all fuzzy, which is good but there were some black areas. We rolled the carpet back and let the floor dry (we cut the padding out and threw it away).

Today I cleaned the carpets and we also sprayed the studs that were black with some mold/mildew spray (which has bleach in it).

I did call our homeowner's and reported the damage. The adjuster will call me back on monday to let me know what is covered. I have a feeling it's not (ugh). We know we're going to have the windows replaced because they are 20 years old and very rickety.

Now mind you, this is our computer room and my scrapping room so we spend alot of time down here and now it's a mess! This is as bad as having your kitchen torn apart. Worst part too is my parents are due to visit in a few weeks and now not only is this room a mess but we had to bring things upstairs so the family room and sewing room is a mess too!

Funny part is that I was trying to organize the scrapping room and was making some headway when this happened and now it's set me back - - - way back!!!!