IT'S OFFICIAL!!

We are going home!!!!!

After Chad's last dose of antibiotics tonight, we get to go home.

The Social worker here at the hospital pulled some major strings and got us I.V. antibiotics too!!!

He'll have to go in twice a day for a week and get his meds through the pic line, then he can take the pills for 2 weeks after that. YAY!!!!

I AM GRATEFUL GRATEFUL GRATEFUL!

UPDATE!!

Okay, so we didn't get to go home today. But the sun STILL CAME OUT! Chad got off of oxygen today. YAY!!! He just can't kick the fevers. They wanted to send us home with I.V. antibiotics, but we don't have insurance. Yes, we've been at the hospital for over a week in the ICU without insurance!!! Yikes!! But things will work out, they always do.

Money is nothing compared to your family and life. Money is just an exchange of goods. My family is worth all the money in the world.

So back to what I was saying. They won't let us go home with the meds through the I.V. There is a strong antibiotic pill that he was going to be able to take. BUT!, the doc wants to be sure that the infection is mostly under control because the pill isn't as effective as the I.V. So he has to be fever free for 24 hours. And he fevered again tonight. BUMMER!!

But we have the most AWESOME doctor who is working on getting us home with the I.V. anyway. He's an amazing man, who truly cares about people and their families. So now we are just praying for an okay to go home with the I.V. meds. Few! Long post. But I had to catch everyone up. I sure appreciate all the support. I really really do.

I'm really happy tonight. Even though we didn't get to go home. My Chaddy is better, and improving, and that's wonderful. I just love this man.

Coming back to life!

We're going to be back to "normal" soon. Normal is going to be Chad home from work on strong antibiotics for 4 to 6 weeks. THAT'S OKAY!!!! He's alive and recovering. Thanks to everyone who has given their prayers and support to us. It's been overwhelming with all the love we've had. It's absolutely wonderful.

Finally something crafty to share. A sneak peek of the January Kit of the Month from Unity. I have a couple of designs in there!!! Can you guess which ones?
And I have a little "something special" planned with a "special someone" coming up. It's time for some BLOG candy, and why not go big? I don't do anything online without this someone, so why not do Blog Candy with that someone? Okay, I totally gave it away, but oh well. Be sure to check in often!!

HE'S BACK!!!! He's coming back. He's beginning to be okay. Thanks to prayer and the right hands. Tanis sent these to me, I'll share with the rest of you. Thank you, thank you!

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

John 14:27

I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

Philippians 4:6-7 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

I need to post a picture of Chad. He's not himself right now. He's hallucinating and thinks I'm lying to him. He thinks something is going to happen in the morning and I won't tell him. THIS is who Chad is. I need to see this again. God, please bring him back!

PRAYERS

PLEASE PLEASE. HEARTFELT SINCERE PRAYERS FOR CHAD!!! THANK YOU!

God is good.

First of all, I'm so thankful for everyone's prayers and concern. Thank you so much. I guess I'll give a little description of what has been going on.

Chad thought he was getting the flu earlier last week. He insisted he was okay and decided to paint our entire house with primer. He came home that night very sick with chills and a high fever. He continued to fever until Friday. He was feeling okay on Friday morning but decided he didn't feel well enough to go to work yet, so he stayed home. He started to feel really full and "gassy" into the night. He didn't sleep much Friday night and Saturday he was feeling very sore and short of breath. He thought he'd be okay and he wanted to wait to see if things would get better before he went to the doctor. (MEN!) On Sunday morning he finally gave in and let me take him to the ER. He was extremely ill. They did blood work and x-rays and decided he was in such bad shape that he needed to be life flighted to Ogden. The infection had gone through all of his blood stream and had started to attack his kidneys.

*How do these things happen to us? Aren't we supposed to be the ones that those things DON'T happen to? *

He was in the ICU on ALOT of oxygen, and ALOT of antibiotics, and ALOT of fluids. I emailed my friend Tanis as soon as I could and she right away put up a message on the SCS forum. Prayers and concerns and well wishes poured in. He far surpassed the doctors expectations of a quick recovery. His levels were looking very good. He was only in the ICU for 1 1/2 days. He's now on the regular medical floor. He's still having a hard time breathing and sleeping. But, he's doing so well.

I sat on his bed and prayed so hard, that the Lord would pour health and love into his body so he can be home with his family on Christmas. After praying I looked up at his monitors, and his levels changed right in front of me. His highs lowered and his lows went up. I thank God for answering my prayers. I thank Him for His tender mercies. I am humbled today. I'm inspired. I feel LOVE. If you read my post the other day, you'll understand how inspiration is so important. I had no idea where that was coming from, yet look at the LOVE that has poured into my own life today.

Thank you EVERYONE for your prayers and kind thoughts. The doctor said had I waited 1 more day to bring him in, he probably wouldn't have made it. That's how close I was to losing him. I love him with everything I have. I love Him with everything I have as well. God is good.

In Style with Unity

Hey all! It's Sunday and only 4 more days till Christmas!! Is your shopping done? Have you made cookies with your kids? Have you found that one person or family that needs a little extra help this year?

If you need to boost your Christmas spirit there's always someone who needs a little help. If you don't know of anyone, go to your local Woman's shelter and ask what you can do to help them. These women have amazing courage to take their kids, and leave everything they have, to go find peace and love and get out of a bad situation. They only have so long to get back on their feet and find somewhere to live. They have to start over with practically nothing. Your local shelter will have a list of things needed to help out.

This is such a great opportunity to teach your children what LOVE really feels like. The best gift you can give is LOVE. It comes in many forms. In a touch, a smile, words, gifts for those in need, and experiences. Be sure to share the gift of LOVE this Christmas. When you give the gift of LOVE to someone, you are giving yourself the same gift in return.

Okay, so now for my card. LOL! This card has nothing to do with my novel above. I don't know where that came from. I guess I was inspired. NEVER ignore your inspirations!

For my card today, I used In Style Stamps and Unity Stamps together. They just fit so perfectly for this card. Looks like Suzy Q is done with her Christmas shopping. It looks like she was done in June actually. I don't know where you find a dress like that in December!! Next card with In Style Stamps is going to be Pam and Buster. Just wait till you see Buster. He's Oh so cute!


Stamps:
In Style Stamps; Suzy Q
Unity Stamp Co; Bitty Boutique

Etsy Inspired #16

It's Saturday!!!! Only 5 more days till Christmas!!! We have something really fun planned for our kids on Christmas. I'll have to take pictures and tell after it's over. I wouldn't want you to spoil the surprise!

This weeks Etsy Inspired Sponsor is Think Outside The Box.

And that's exactly what her creations are. Art work brain stormed by thinking outside the box. Very fun and creative things. Take a look around the shoppe, find something that inspires YOU, and make some ART! Post it on you blog and leave a comment HERE with a link to your creation. You could win a great prize from the shoppe. Check Ashley's blog for details.

Here are a couple fun things I found that inspired me:This is what I came up with for my creation.

Stamps from Unity; December Kit of the Month
Be sure to check out the other design team members creations:
Ashley(post a link to your creation here)
Katie (December Guest Designer)
Ryann
Joy
Lee
Tiff
Tanis

HIP HOP HANGOVER

Well, I never posted a picture of my project yesterday. So I'll share it with you today for Unity's Hip Hop Hangover. I didn't get to hip hop either. My poor hubby is still so sick. I'm worried he might have pneumonia! Prayers please!

I got these felt Christmas stockings at Joann's for $1.50 each! I bought enough for all 6 of us to make one each. I also bought some cheap sheets of felt for like $.25 cents each, I think. The kid's turned out soooo cute. I'll take pictures and post them later today. But here's mine. I used my stamps from Unity's Kit of the Month (November) for the tree and deer. The snowflakes along the top are from the stamp called Snow and Polka Dots. It's HUGE!! I love it. I love these stamps. I stamped my images right on the pieces of felt and it worked great. This stocking is COVERED in stickles. I went a little stickle crazy. Gotta love those stickles. I just cut the star out after drawing it on the back. If you want to make one and have any questions, just let me know. I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Just a Wednesday

We made fun Christmas projects today. I'll have pictures in the morning. But tonight I thought I'd just post a couple of pictures. My super cute nephew loves me. What can I say, I'm a fun Aunt! He calls me Dinz. He always says "mom, where's Dinz?" I love it. This is him with his momma. It was Heidi's bday on Sunday. My 3 oldest spent the night at her house and they all stayed up until 3am!!!! I guess maybe she's the cool Auntie. So on Sunday morning when she finally rolled out of bed (at 11!), they were all downstairs sitting on the couch waiting for her. When she came around the corner they started singing Happy Birthday to her. Isn't that sweet? I wish they loved me that much!














I realized I never post a picture of Chad. So here's the man I love! I love love love him. He's so sick right now, and it makes me feel so sad. He's the hardest working man you'll ever meet. And it has wore him right out. 15 hour days for almost a year have taken a toll. In fact, this is a picture of him AT WORK!! He never lets me take a picture. He was standing next to the truck and I sneaked a picture. I hope he feels better tomorrow. I love you Chad!

I almost forgot! I have over 15,000 hits on my blog since I started in April! As soon as I'm all settled in my new house with my new scrap room, I'll be having a BIG blog candy celebration post. Celebrating my new fun creative space and all you fabulous followers and peeps I love.

SO busy

I'm super busy this week. I'll have pictures of our house soon. WITH PAINT ON THE WALLS!! Then you can see why my crafting has come to a halt! Here's a couple cards I've never posted. Have a great week everyone!

My News!

I made the Guest Design Spot for In Style Stamps!! Yay! It's for December and January. I love these stamps. The images are just too cute. They're very detailed and fun to color. Now I REALLY want to invest in some Copics. Here's a couple of cards I've made so far using the stamps.

This is Ginger: she's actually paper pieced



And this is Suzy Q:



How fun are these?

Etsy Inspired #14

This weeks Etsy Inspired Sponsor is Purple Toes Jewelry.



She has a store FULL of great jewelry. If you still need to buy someone a gift, this is a great place to go. There are some really fun things to choose from. She's offering 3 different pairs of earrings for 3 different winners!! Wow! Very generous. So now you have 3 chances to win!! There's a ton of inspiration to choose from in her shop. Just browse through her Etsy Shoppe, see something that you feel inspires you, and make something with that inspiration. Leave a comment HERE on the Etsy Inspired Blog (Ashley), and leave a link to your creation. The winner will be announced next Friday. Good Luck, and have fun looking around Purple Toes Jewelry.


Here's what I chose for my inspiration:


And this is my creation:



Be sure to take a look at the other Etsy Inspired DT members creations:

Ashley (where you link your creation to)

Ryann
Lee
Joy
Tiff
Tanis

It's HIP HOP Thursday

It's a Hip Hoppin' day to go Hip Hop with the fun gals at
Unity Stamp Co.
If you love stamps, and you love having fun, you must MUST HIP HOP!

Start on the Unity Stamp Co. Blog, then you'll find your way around the ever so talented Unity Designer Team Members blogs. There's great blog candy along the way, so don't forget to leave some love on the blogs.

Then you'll end up at the Unity forum on SCS, where you can chat and play along with some challenges, and even randomly have a chance to win something just by being there. IT'S GREAT! Hope to see you there!!

Card Made with Unity Stamps
(& those little helicopter things that fall from the tree)

And this is just a super cute picture of my nephew. I was giving him a haircut last night and my son was trying to get him to smile. This IS his smile. How stinkin' cute!

Trying to catch up!

I'm trying to keep everything in balance. My paper crafting is going to have to have half of a break for a bit while we try to get into our house. But no worries, I'll be back to crafting craziness soon. I'll still have stuff to post, just not as much. I have some new fun news too, so be checking in to find out!!!!

Here's a card I made super quick last night.

Stamps: Unity
Paper: Kaisercraft

Etsy Inspired #14

The Etsy Challenge this week can be found at ASHLEY"S BLOG

The Etsy Shop to look at for this week's inspiration is Dragonfly Fine Designs

Check them out, be inspired, make something and link it to Ashley's blog....

Here's what I used for inspiration:



And here is my card


Take a look at the other Design Team members creations. You'll find their link on my side bar.

Sorry for the short post. I'm on my way out the door.

Have a great weekend!

HIP HOP HANGOVER

Sorry I didn't post this earlier. I had so many things come up today that I just ran out of time. So here it is finally. I made a little container for some die cuts I made. I used a transparency to create a window to see what's inside. Then I used my stamp from the November KOM from Unity for a decorative frame around the window. The other thing is a paper bag album I made. It's sewn around the edges to give it a softer look. I can't wait until my Secret Santa Sister gets her package. This is just a tiny big of it. Because you know,................ I have A LOT OF RIBBON!!!!! So it was kind of easy to go a little overboard with sharing it!! OH! I guess I forgot to explain that we did Secret Santa Sisters with all the girls that love Unity and stalk the SCS forum together. How fun is that? I hope mine loves hers!!

Unity Hip Hop Thursday

It's that day of the week again! HiP hOp Thursday! Where you can win fabulous prizes, get some good deals on stamps, and make some new friends(I sure have). Go check out the new releases on the UNITY BLOG. Read through the post and find the first link to the talented Design Team members blog. From that point you will hip hop all the way through the DT's blog and end up at the Unity forum on SCS. There are prizes for challenges and giveaway's for just because, all day long!


Here's a card I made using Unity Stamps from the November Kit Of The Month, and the snow and polka dots single. I used the inspiration challenge on SCS for this one. I have to say I'm loving this tree!

A few things to warm your heart

It was Kelsey's first dance recital today. I was just so overwhelmed with joy watching her. It was the cutest darn thing ever. She's quite a good dancer. I don't know how to explain this, because I'm the most uncoordinated person alive. She definitely doesn't get it from me. Maybe she gets it from Aunt Nikki.



Next, is a card. Well it's actually 18 cards total. My good friend is sadly losing her battle with pancreatic cancer. She is the most positive fun person I've ever met. She called me the other day and asked if I would help her with some cards. She wants to send out some Christmas cards to her friends and was very specific about what she wanted it to be. She has the most amazing sense of humor. She is proof that everything in life can be turned into some sort of humorous fact. She asked if I could make it a western card with a boot. She wants the outside to say "Have a Kickin' Christmas" and the inside to say "as in.... I still am." And she sure is still kickin' and making the most of every minute. So here what I came up with.

I drew the boot on my computer and printed out a couple sheets full of them. Then I colored them all and made all the cards like this. Doesn't it just make you smile to think of how positive someone can stay even though they could give up and be so down?


Third, it's HIP HOP THURSDAY! AND I {HEART} UNITY! Don't miss out on all the great deals, new releases, and fun!

Carter's Thanksgiving

I just needed to share this picture of Carter. He wanted the leg at the Thanksgiving dinner. So... I gave him the leg.

Vintage Style

I was on a quest one day at the thrift store. I was picking up all sorts of cheap old junk. I love cheap old junk that can be glorified. I found this old travel chest for $3!! What a deal. It even came with a smell of old man medicine. What a great addition huh? HAHA. So here is the before picture:



And here is the after!! I think I really like it. I love the colors. It's one of my favorite color combos.

s




One more thing I wanted to share. I found this blog somehow one day and am in LOVE with it. It's this guy that just cooks out of his home and gives out the recipes. The food is AMAZING!! If you need a good recipe for the holidays, go here and look at all his yummy recipes. He even posts a picture with every one of them. It makes my mouth water every time I read it. It's called Closet Cooking. Check it out.

The New KOM at UNITY

The new Kit of the Month is up at Unity. A few of my stamps are in there. Can you guess which ones are designed by me? Be sure to sign up for the KOM club so you can get these fun kits at a discounted price each month. It's so worth it. I love my KOM stamps. Plus, Angela usually puts a coupon or some kind of goody in the KOM each month. We got a really super good coupon in November. Go HERE to see the kit at the Unity site.

So proud!

I got my KOM from Unity the other day. I couldn't wait to use the stamps I designed. I can't believe how I felt when I first used my stamps. I know it sounds so corny, but this is such a big deal for me. So this is the first card I made using the stamps I designed. HOW EXCITING!! I designed the tree and frame(which I cut into a bracket), and the row of flowers(not used on this card). The other stamps are from the other extremely talented Unity artists. I hope you like it as much as I do. I promise I won't ever be this conceded again! I'm just too excited.

Etsy Inspired #13

ETSY #13 is all up at ASHLEY'S BLOG....
The sponsor this week, who is giving away a FABULOUS prize once again, is

Morgan Street.

Full of yummy soaps and body products....you'll want to get in on this one!





Go visit the shop, find an item that inspires you, CREATE SOMETHING, and link your project back to Ashley's post for a chance to win.





I was inspired by the cupcakes and all the fun dessert soaps. They all look so real. How fun would they be sitting on your counter? You'll love this store, it's very popular and has great gifts!

Here is my creation:



I can't wait to see what everyone makes!!

Be sure to check out all the other DT members creations here:
Ashley(where you post your creations)
Tanis
Tiff
Joy
Lee
Ryann

Wallet photo book

I have had SO many hits on this post. I'm so curious to see what everyone is making. Please leave a link to your creations so I can see what I have inspired. I would love it! (comment added Dec. 14th)



I had so many requests for a pattern for the wallet photo book I made. So I drew one up tonight in between kids being sick. I hope it explains itself. I'm not very good at instructions. Here's the wallet:



And here is the template for it:



When cutting the insert, cut 2 strips that are 4 1/2" x 12" and glue them together using 1 of the small 3/4" ends. The other 3/4" end can just be cut off. Then glue the accordian to the center of the inside of the wallet . For the wallet I glued 2 pieces of patterned paper together to make it stronger. Let me know if you have any questions. And if you do make one, I would LOVE to see it, please leave your link in my comments so I know where to find it.

Make sure you use UNITY STAMPS to make it look the very cutest it can!!!