Saw this on C's blog... love it.

The world's a huge stockpile of God-wonders and God-thoughts. Nothing and no one comes close to you! I start talking about you, telling what I know, and quickly run out of words. Neither numbers nor words account for you.
~ Psalm 40:5, The Message

Found these cool blogs recently:

Multi-Photo Scrapbook Layout Gallery (these rock my socks off!)

The Rectangle Rocks (some love for us 8.5 x 11ers)

And have I mentioned that the awesome Gretchen has finally succumbed to the dark side?

Bwahahaahahaahaha!

Been spiffing up the ol' blogaroni. Like it. It was time for a change. :)

I have some deep thoughts rumbling around in my brain from church yesterday, but I will save that for another post when they become a little further developed.

em's little friend liv drew this yesterday in church.
in case you can't read what it says, this is her interpretation of the pic:

Virginia (the large one in the middle) is sad because Emerson took a lot of medicine. Shaun (one on the far left) is so high because he is jumping.

That's Em- the little one on the right.

I don't know where Atticus is. LOL

1. give her your sunglasses
2. attempt to let her sit in a chair by herself without driving the other sick people in the ER waiting room crazy
3. watch her closely for signs that the 1/2 bottle of children's cold medicine is causing any weird affects
4. hold her tight while she gets the tiny blood pressure sleeve attached to her arm
5. prepare her sippy cup for the delicious mixture of charcoal and chocolate milk
6. watch her guzzle it down
7. prepare yourself for a 3 hour wait in a small hospital room not designed with toddlers in mind
8. try to get her to take a nap
9. berate yourself for even thinking that a nap would happen
10. tickle her
11. help her jump on the bed
12. give her some burt's bees chapstick
13. let her rub it on your cheeks
14. show her that she can take her shoes on and off (this is mildly entertaining for several minutes at least)
15. snuggle
16. let her color with a pen on a piece of scratch paper
17. when that gets old, get a bigger piece of paper and a sparkly pen
18. put her medical bracelet on Lambie
19. give her your thumb ring
20. DON'T give her your wedding ring
21. carry her 30 pound self around the room several times
22. give her graham crackers (although these will most likely end up on the floor later on)
23. cheer greatly when, 2 1/2 hours later, the doctor says you can go home.
24. get her some chicken nuggets from mcd's.
25. take a nap. both of you.


that was my saturday. how was yours?


{i am so grateful for my children's health. for my baby girl being ok. for wonderful family and friends- ginger & jeremy- who came to my rescue at a moment of need. for my husband holding down the fort. thank you Lord.}

ok, i feel the need to share some links today, i don't know why, but here you go.

this is such a cute blog. i love the layout, love the content... oh and i love her scrapbooking. makes me so happy. {maria grace}

if you are a nerd like me, you:
1) have a lot of books
2) are obsessive compulsive about organization
3) have been searching for a way to catalog your books

well folks, i have an answer to all of our nerdy problems:

{librarything}

not only can you catalog your books easily, but since it's an online community database, it will offer you suggestions from other people's personal libraries that have similar book tastes as you! how cool is that?

speaking of suggestions,

i am always on the lookout for new music, but i am not so good at branching out and trying new things. plus i hate to drop the $$ on something i am not totally sure i will like.

enter, stage left: {pandora}

it's called the "music genome project." basically what you do is enter in a song or an artist that you like the sound of, and WHAM! a whole ad-free radio station with music that has similar elements. and if it plays something you don't like, you can just give it a thumbs down and it will figure out what you didn't like about that song and exclude anything else from your song list like that.

how cool is that?

hmmm... i think that's all i'll share for today. :) gotta go pack... we're leaving for thanksgiving celebrations with the fam and i still haven't packed or baked my sourdough bread (but it is rising in its pans, so that's good).

happy thanksgiving!

aren't you interested in what i'm doing to my hair these days?

i know you are.

i mean, you are sitting around at night, drinking your hot cup of cocoa or tea or coffee (although you really shouldn't be drinking something that caffeinated at this time of night, now should you?) and you are thinking to youself, "man. i am dying to know how virginia is doing her hair these days."

well have no fear... that is what this inane blog entry is about.

i have an awesome hair stylist at my church. i mean, she is cool and funky and has a different hair color nearly every week. she has done my hair before, and i love her to death. (shameless plug: if you need a new stylist, check her out at the salon in the galleria- her name is kari ann.)


(that's kari ann holding atticus)

anyways, so i had mentioned to her that i needed my hair done- i wanted to perk it up. i decided i wanted to do some chunky-ish highlights.

well, being the insane person that i have become, i had not planned the time for her to do it before thanksgiving.

so i got a wild hair tonight (hee hee ha ha- wasn't that a great pun) and decided to just do it myself.

so i recut my bangs and highlighted my hair.

i'm pretty darn happy with the results.

sure... there's some blotchiness here and there and next time, kari ann will definitely be getting my business, but it worked in a pinch. :)

(please ignore the weird expression on my face & the lack of makeup.)







ETA: dadgummit. i really didn't want to get in "heroes" but i just can't resist the whole comic book genre. plus, it's got "jess" from "gilmore girls." combining two loves. tee hee

tonight i am editing photos from disney... hopefully will be able to share them tomorrow! woohoo!

i'm hoping it'll get my mojo flowing.... today i stopped by Scrap Etc to pick up a "few things" (*wink wink*) and want to play but am feeling bummed because of a majorly draining evening with the kiddos.

a couple of cool things today though, in the midst of the child-drama:

-got to meet ms. sayfay, sayfiddy extraordinaire... the famous sarah! her family was on their way to thanksgiving celebrations and got to stop in our fair city. woot! she is SUCH a sweetie and her kids are adorable... her hubby is fun to hang out with and let sarah & i ooh and ahh over all the cool stuff at scrap etc. :)

she is the VERY first person that i didn't know in real life to comment on my blog... i felt so special. :)

now i only wish she lived closer so we could scrap together.....

-another cool thing.... big drumrolllllllllll please.... today i can proudly announce that i was asked to join the design team over at crop addict! i am SO pumped about this opportunity and cannot wait to create with their awesome kits! go check it out!

alright... need to go edit photos. later gators! :)

edited to add.... YAY! i did these quickly tonight to share... so these are my faves. i'm planning on getting some more from gretchen soon. just click on the flickr badge to the right to check 'em all out. :)

oh and another thing: i've been debating on cutting my side-swoopy bangs again or let them grow out. after seeing some pics of me DUDE! my face looks super square! lol it's definitely back to the swoop bangs for me! :)

the girl is trouble. pure trouble.

(sorry for the unedited pics- had to take them quick. lol)

So what did you do this last week?

I went on an inspiration trip with Monique from Scrap Etc. We needed to do some planning for the event in March and the new store opening up in Trussville, and took a *business* trip to Orlando to visit Mickey and get inspiration from one creative man- Walt Disney.

Wow. I have SO much I want to share about my trip, so I'm going to have to do it in stages... but I did want to go ahead and say I had a fabulous time on the trip, and I am so grateful to Monique for taking me along with her and the other girls. I feel so inspired... my brain is churning with ideas. Walt Disney was a truly inspiring man- such a dreamer.

Most of my pictures are on Mo's Mac because I wanted to make sure I had plenty of space on my memory stick, so I'm going to have to wait to post a lot of my pics, but I will leave you with a few from MGM. :) I didn't get to edit them- so they are as they are. ;)

Love the details on this bus- this was actually in Animal Kingdom... a bus that sold ice cream in "Asia." :)


Gonna use this as an inspiration piece:


MGM all lit up for Christmas:




The sign to the bathroom at Rockin' Rollercoaster:


Dude. That is one scary ride. I had fingernail marks in my hands afterwards. I am such a wimp when it comes to rollercoasters... but I went on this ride because on the encouragement of the other girls with me. First time on an upside-down roller coaster everybody.

They went 2 more times.

I stayed outside and sketched. LOL

Ahhh the Twiligh Zone Tower of Terror. Cool idea for a ride, although it makes my stomach go flip-flop.



And this is for you, Gretchen, Mo, and Vanessa:

I love that song by Louis Armstrong.

What a wonderful world...

It was one of the songs played at our wedding. I chose it because, admist all of the crap that we see in this world, all of the suffering, I believe we are blessed to live in a wonderful world.

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see 'em bloom, for me and for you

I see skies of blue, clouds of white,
Bright blessed days, dark sacred nights

The colors of a rainbow, so pretty, in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands,sayin, "how do you do?"
They're really sayin' ".i love you."

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow,
They'll learn much more, than I'll never know

And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself .......what a wonderful world.


Bright blessed days of seeing our babies born, holding them tight as they blinked their newborn eyes.... I watched him, not the little baby in his arms. I saw the gentleness in his face. I saw the man that I fell in love with.

Dark sacred nights of our first kiss on a playground in the moonlight...holding hands as we walked around the mall every weekend while we lived far far away from most of our friends and family- blessed to be spending time with my best friend.

I believe I live in a wonderful world because God has brought someone wonderful to me. (Yes, even though he and I differ on what we think about love at first sight and "the one & only." *wink)

Someone who cooks for me most nights of the week.

Someone who knows me so well that he bought me an organizer cubby container for my scrapbooking desk- and it was my favorite gift.
Someone who takes time off of work to create a home out of our house by painting it in colors I know he would not have picked out himself.

Someone who snuggles with his little girl and kisses her cheeks. Someone who brushes the soft cheeks of his son and smiles his groggy smile when he first wakes up in the morning.

Someone who carries me to Jesus when I am lost and confused.

Someone who is strong for me. For our family.

Someone who is serious about his faith. Someone who doesn't take lightly the Word of God.

Someone who laugh and teases me.
Someone who took the time, 7 years ago, to start a notebook with me... a journal that circulated back and forth between us during busy classes in college and our first few years of marriage- to keep communication lines open.

Someone who goes out of his comfort zone to plan special things for me.

Someone who I am proud of, beyond measure, for his accomplishments.

Someone who is ethical. Someone who sticks to the Truth, even when it's not a popular view. Someone whom I respect.



Happy birthday baby. I am so glad you were born.

And I hope you forgive me for posting this picture.

(Someone who hates to have his picture taken.) ;)

I'm tired of seeing my Britney Spears entry as what comes up on this page when you pull it up, so I'm adding this as a little place saver for an entry later. My friend Michelle is about to be here, I just so happen to still be in my pjs, and I'm packing today to get ready to leave for a trip on Saturday am. The kids are spending their first few days away from mom & dad, so I am a little bit nervous.

More details to come later.

before i go any further, i just want to say that normally i am not someone that makes light of divorce. it is a very sad thing to watch people go through... i know it is hard and painful and takes a lot of sour things to come to that decision. so i don't want anyone to think i'm being flippant about it when i say:

IT'S ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME!!!!

Britney dumps K-Fed.

(yes people. i am really a deep person. i promise.)

I made this Christmas family traditions album out of a little chipboard accordian album I had laying around. The scans don't do it justice, if I can say so myself.

I'm planning on taking pictures this Christmas and developing them at wallet size to add to it, plus adding the journaling for all of our family traditions.

The first tradition I'm going to add to it?

Playing Christmas music the day after Halloween.

Love it.

Listening to:

Here's the pics of the album... and may I challenge you, whether you're a scrapbooker or not, to pay attention to your family traditions this holiday season. Write them down somewhere, get a little notebook dedicated to such a thing, or make note in your blog. Just get them down- I can't wait to look back at this little book in five years or so and see how our traditions have evolved.

(For some reason I can't get my computer to recognize my camera, but I will post pics later of the album all accordianed out. is that a word? i don't think so.)





the random piece of blue polkadotted ribbon is not actually on that page- it's the ribbon that ties the book together and it snuck under the page on the scanner. sneaky ribbon.




that sneaky ribbon did it again here too.

i love saturday mornings. :) i won't go into a long monologue, however, extolling the beauties of saturday mornings because em is sitting in my lap, eating cereal, i'm trying to eat my cereal & type at the same time, atticus is on "puke-watch" (ie- he has a stomach virus and i'm keeping an eye on him for further developments), and shaun and i have big plans today to organize our garage so i can't waste mindless hours on the internet this morning.

saturday morning news that *might* be of interest to you: i've got several scrappy auctions going on at ebay. you should check 'em out- i'm trying to clear out some space and declutter my scrapbooking room.

also, i played some last night with the new scenic route and some christmas goodies... i'll be finishing it today and posting it. i'm really getting into the holiday mood!

i've discovered the kidlit-blogosphere. fun reads. love reading the reviews & the interesting thoughts from those within the kids/teens lit world.

here's two of my faves:

A Fuse #8 Production

MotherReader

alright y'all... gotta get my lazy bones off of here and get productive. have an adventurous week ahead of me. :) xoxo.

(http://www.nataliedee.com)

i've had some nice moments these last couple of days.

shaun made this de-lic-ious spaghetti & meatball soup last night... i enjoyed the leftovers tonight again. mmmmmm. so yummy. he got the recipe from here in case you are interested in trying it out. the chick that writes that blog has really yum recipes that are healthy & low-cal/low-fat (and she puts weight watchers points down for some of the meals). i really like it. plus i really like the fact that my husband likes to cook food for me. :)


i finally cleaned up my scrap area... it's been looking like this for a couple of weeks:

pretty overwhelming.

but now it's moderately clean. probably needs a re-organization, but eh.

em went to mother's day out and gave me a wee break.

atticus and i lazed around while i read "mimus" and caught up on last night's LOST.

i got a really sweet & encouraging email from michelle.

i had an excellent library visit... except for the whole paying the humongo fine part. (yes, katie m., i'm one of those dreaded "always-have-a-fine" people. i bet we drive you crazy, huh? )


oh, and speaking of books... i made this a while back and forgot to share it. i like to keep a record of the books i read and jot a few thoughts down. i've found that sometimes shaun and i will remember a book vaguely, but not the title or whatever and we can't find it again because of our poor memories. so i started keeping a reading journal this year. :)


did i mention that the registration for the 2007 Scrap Etc. event started yesterday?! i am so super-excited about it. i'm helping with some of the planning and if you are planning on coming- or still wavering on the decision- you are going to be in for some real treats! i'm especially excited to say that the amazing ms. kristina contes is going to be there (along with heather preckel, alison tyler jones, stacy julian, jenni bowlin, and robin johnson!!) ... i can't be more thrilled to be able to take her class. :) she posted a little peek at the products she's going to use in her class, and already my fingers are itching to play.

well... i'd better get off... update my google calendar with my library book due dates. trying to avoid that fine this time around.