DAY #126

I decided I had way too much to say about my walk today to just post it on Facebook so I decided I would blog about it instead. Normally on Saturdays I drive down to the beach and walk there. It's always fun to get away from my normal routine and enjoy the sights and sounds down at the beach. It does wonders for my mind. It kind of clears the cobwebs out and gives me time to think. Unfortunately this weekend we had some car issues to deal with so I had no real way to get down to the beach so instead I decided I needed to improvise. So improvise is what I did. This morning it occurred to me that I have been saying since I transferred to the new warehouse that I lived so close I could walk there...but I never have...so that's what I decided to do this morning is walk to Costco and back. I knew it was about 2 miles over so I could get in the same amount of walking that I do at the beach. Ok, so I admit it wasn't the same as walking at the beach but it was still good. Now I can actually say I have walked to Costco...lol Once I got there I decided I would walk the perimeter of the building. We use to have to do that as part of our floor walks for the Member Service department. Costco has since said we no longer have to do that but I remember when I use to do them it would take me a good 10 minutes to walk all the way around the building...I am here to tell you...NO MORE!!! I walked the perimeter in 6 MINUTES!!! What a difference!!! I knew I had come a long way but to actually realize I had shaved 4 minutes off my time was HUGE to me. The few co-workers that I passed thought I was slightly crazy for "going to work" when I didn't have to but it made for a great walk.

On the way home as I was cutting through the neighborhood that we use to live in I decided to walk past our old apartment. It pretty much looks the same. So many memories there when my boys were so little. How did they grow up so fast? As I continued on my way I passed the boys elementary school and I truly was going to go into the Kindergarten playground and swing on the swings but the gate was locked so I decided jumping the fence was out of the question...lol So many memories in that neighborhood....I drive through there daily on my way to work but never really take the time to stop and think about it.  Life just goes by too quickly...I need to remember to enjoy EVERY moment!!

Cool pattern in the sidewalk at Bella Terra

Loved the Bird of Paradise with the pine behind it

I am off to get stuff done around here. We are going to a Halloween Party tonight and I have some treats to make. Have a great day everyone!

Mixed Media Fun

                                                                                                                                                             

Kaden at 7 months and Jeremy at 6 months.

 We had a great visit with
 Jeremy's in-laws while they were in SoCal recently. Holly's Mom babysits Kaden while
 Holly is at work and since we are 6 hours away I am always all about getting a new photo of our sweet grandson...so while texting his other Gramma one day I asked for a picture. She sent this one along with another one that will be scrapped together at a later date. This particular photo of Kaden while he totally looks like both of them reminded me of a photo I had of Jeremy at about the same age so I decided to scrap them together on the same page....one photo from 2013 and one from 1989. The Sketchabilities Sketch #99 was perfect for them. Even though I am not much of a mixed media girl, I felt drawn to the sketch so I decided to get out some Heidi Swapp Color Shine along with some of her cool resist papers and see what I could come up with. I must say I am very pleased with the results.

Sketch #99

This layout was done by one of their design team, Maria Shakhova.
I used it in combination with the sketch for my design. I loved all the
layers she used.

Finally Some Layouts to Share

My last post is a hard act to follow .It was kind of like a year in review post...now it's been nearly a month since blogged last....I know bad blogger. I admire women like Julie Jacob who blogs every day. I just never seem to be able to blog on a regular basis. It's kind of the way my scrapbooking has been going lately. I start a page and it sits on my table for a week or more before I get it finished. Now finally I have a few pages to share. I think it's taken me nearly all summer to finish them. Be that as it may....without any further fanfare....here are my most recent layouts and some thoughts to go with the.

The first layout was fun to do. Photos are from our trip to the Orange County Fair when Jeremy and Holly came to visit. The October Afternoon "Farm Girl" was perfect for the fair photos. I had no idea what I was going to use that cute little chipboard farm girl on when I bought the paper but totally love the out come.

The next layout has a story behind it. I have always loved the photo of Jason and his friend David from back in 2005, we were at Disneyland on a school band trip. The boys have been friends since then. They both became Eagle Scouts and have still remained friends even now that they are out of school. I surprised Jason last week and invited David to come over and spend some time with him in honor of Jasson's Birthday....of course being the good Mom that I

am I had to snap a couple of photos...much to  their dismay...I think maybe I might have had the idea for this layout running around in my head when I took the photo last week. What do you think??? I love to see how they have gone from little boys to grown up young men.

The Instagram layout is one that I started back in May when I first signed up on Instagram. I thought it would be fun to do. I started it, printed out the collage of photos and it sat unfinished for a couple of months. Finally one day when I was talking to my sister I managed to finish it with the exception of the Instamatic chipboard camera at the bottom...you see we both bought the paper when I was up visiting her last March she bought the cute little chipboard cameras and we were planning on sharing them...then we got busy scrapping and she temporarily misplaced said

cameras...fortunately she finally found them and and mailed them to me....Thanks Linda for helping me get another layout completed. =)

The last layout is one of several I have done about my journey this year. I went to the Doctors office for my 3 month post op appointment a few weeks ago, I was feeling so grateful that things have turned out so well...they could have been so different. I was feeling so wonderful that I decided to take a little "selfie" in the Doctors office and scrap about how great I was feeling.

Well there you have it....my most recent finished layouts. I still have a couple that I need to finish up so hopefully with any luck there will be another blog post coming sooner than this one...so stay tuned.

My Journey through 2013...my year of self discovery.

We are now over 8 months into 2013. I decided that rather than wait until December and write my "year in review" post I would start now. This blog post will eventually end up on a scrapbook page I am sure but for now this was a great place to put down my thoughts. Someone asked me this morning on Facebook what my original goal was in my current weight loss journey and I realized that my goal started out as just wanting to move more and eat less....but it has become so much more than that now. This afternoon I saw this quote on Pinterest and thought it totally described my year so far. Nothing could have prepared me for the twists and turns that this year has brought and yet I must say I am grateful for everyone of them.

January 2013 dawned with excitement at our house. We were expecting our first grandchild. I made plans to take vacation after the baby arrived so that I could be there when sweet little Kaden was born. He was perfect in every way. I arrived just the day after he was born and I was totally in love with this sweet little guy. I stayed the week and then went home. I hated to leave but knew that it was time to come home.  I was home a week or so and then the first "Plot Twist" entered my life. I had a routine colonoscopy and they found a mass in my rectum and I needed surgery. Talk about yelling "PLOT TWIST"!!! I was screaming! Fortunately for me I was surrounded by amazingly wonderful family and friends who supported me through the whole journey.

Sweet Kaden at 4 days old.

In March I was able to go and see my sister on another weeks vacation where I had an absolute blast. I looked at my sister and her amazing transformation from overweight to a remarkably fit woman having lost 30 pounds and I was instantly impressed and proud of her for doing it. I attended a couple of Zumba classes with her and realized that I really could move more and at that time I made up my mind that once my surgery was behind me I would embark on a journey of my own. I kept it to myself and continued to ponder about it as I prepared for surgery. I found myself even before the surgery trying to eat a little bit better.

Fast forward to after my surgery. I won't say the whole experience was a piece of cake because it totally wasn't. But I was guided along the way by a loving Father in Heaven who buoyed me up and carried me when I didn't think I could go on. Family supported me, friends rallied...words cannot express how

Loved hanging with my Sister, Linda.

Ready for Surgery

wonderful everyone has been. I was off work for two weeks. Believe me I needed it. While my surgeon was right it wasn't a painful surgery, I got tired very easily and found that resting as much as possible was important. I joked that I became an HGTV junkie. I watched all kinds of shows on that channel while I was recovering. By the time I had my one month post-op appointment I was back to work and feeling pretty good so I started to walk for exercise. Mostly just my neighborhood. One day at work my manager asked me how far I was walking and I said I wasn't sure probably about a mile. She told me about Map My Run, a free app I could get for my phone that ran off GPS and could track and record my exercise. Well let me tell you...that was all it took. Never in my wildest dreams did I think a silly app on my phone would inspire me to walk on a regular basis. I'm not very competitive by nature but now suddenly I was competing with myself through this app...I wanted to walk longer, I wanted to walk faster than I had the day before. Between Map my Run and my decision to post every day on Facebook to help keep me accountable I was off to a good start.

Today is day 50 of my walking. I have not missed a day. Some days I walk longer than others but even if I don't feel like it I do it anyway. At first I was afraid if I took days off I might not continue.
Besides, for years I had heard that it takes 21 days to develop a habit and I wanted walking to become a habit. So that was my first goal. It just kind of went from there. Especially when I saw how far I had walked. In July alone I walked 60.6 miles!!! I have branched out from my neighborhood. I am walking other neighborhoods.  I have been walking the beach on Saturdays when I have a little more time. Last Saturday I even walked extra...I got a little over zealous and got two miles away from my car before I realized I would have to walk 2 more miles back to my car. OOPS. I survived tho and while I was a little bit worn out the rest of the day I was thrilled that I could say I had walked 4 miles!

I finally got into the cute white
jeans my sister gave me.

My long term goal at this point is to do a Color Run like my sister. It looks like so much fun....my goal is to run as much of it as possible. There is one here locally in May of 2014...just in time for my 60th Birthday...I can't think of a better way to celebrate. I am sure as the weight comes off running will become easier. In the mean time I am just going to keep on keeping on. I feel so much better, . I have grown spiritually, physically and emotionally. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

Truly the last 50 days has been AMAZING.  I have accomplished so much more than I ever thought possible. The weight is coming off. I have lost 20 pounds. While I can attribute some of that to surgery and not eating for nearly a week before and after the surgery....I have taken off much of it on my own. I am for the most part eating healthy foods. Not too much junk and really not even wanting it either, which for me is really weird. I have always had a sweet tooth but since my surgery I haven't craved sweets quite so much. So I am running with that as long as it lasts! lol I also am eating, per Doctors orders, lots of fiber and drinking lots of water. I've even cut way back on my diet coke consumption.

I have learned so much about myself in the past 50 days....I have discovered I am much stronger of a person than I ever thought....I have learned to rely on the Lord when I simply can't do it myself. I have discovered that I have so much determination when I really put my mind to something...yes I guess you can teach this old dog some new tricks...So what will the next 50 days bring....more walking, for sure, more healthy eating, definitely, more weight loss, I certainly hope so....and maybe, just maybe some new, better fitting clothes. =)



Fun in the Sun...a perfect day

It was such fun to have Jeremy and Holly come and visit last week. I couldn't wait to get my hands on some of the pictures I took of my sweet, adorable grandson. One afternoon we went down to the beach for an hour or so. It was a perfect day. Beautiful sunshine, watching my boys goof off in the waves and introducing Kaden to the beach. As you can tell from the picture Kaden loved it. Now if only they lived closer. =)

I used Teresa Collins "Stationary Noted" for this layout along with awesome sketch #96 from Sketchabilities. I am totally in love with their sketches. Check them out next time you want a great jumping off spot. www.sketchabilities.blogspot.com

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERESA!

What a wonderful lady....in honor of her Birthday she is giving away all four of her new collection packs! How cool is that...all we have to do is share the news....so I'm sharing everywhere I can think of. As you know I totally LOVE all things TERESA COLLINS. So head on over to her blog here. www.teresacollins.typepad.com and read up on all the details! Thanks again Teresa for the chance to win.

Enjoy the Journey

I love the Sketchabilities blog. It's such a great place to start when I am looking for inspiration. This is my interpretation of Sketch #95.

This year has indeed been a journey for me. From being a first time Gramma, to having surgery to finally deciding it was time to get healthy and loose weight.  I have only lost 12 pounds but I am amazed at how people are noticing.  It does a girl good to hear that she looks good. More than that though is that I feel so much better. I am doing things I never even dreamed that I would do. I am jogging. I have always hated running but no more. I am walking/jogging daily and most days I really enjoy it.  I have a ways to go to get to where I want to be but I have made up my mind I am going to enjoy the journey along the way.

 

A Surprise from Sketchabilities

WOW....I am so jazzed. I just happened to stop the Sketchabilities blog today and lo and behold there was one of my layouts in their header as one of their "featured" designers for Sketch # 93...how cool is that? I guess their Mr. Linky keeps track of how many hits my blog had for my layout and I was in the top 5....pretty darn excited, can you tell?  Thanks Sketchabilities. Your sketches ROCK!

Life has been busy lately, I am continuing to train in Hearing Aids at work. There's lots of stuff to learn but I am totally enjoying it. I have managed to get in some scrapping lately so I thought I would share. Have a great week everyone....and hopefully I will be blogging more often. =)

Love these photos of my adorable grandson!

I'm really serious about this getting healthy thing!

I love now and then photos on the same page especially when
they tell a story.

LOVE these ladies...we had a great time at our Tea Party.









Today is a Gift

It's been a long few months. Now that my surgery is behind me and I am well on the road to recovery maybe, just maybe, I will blog more often....and scrap more frequently. With the stress of the surgery, my scrappy mojo kind of went out the window. I scrapped but every page seemed to be an effort. The page I just finished wasn't that way thanks to  Sketch  #93 from Sketchabilities....so I think I am on my way to finding my mojo again.

Jason was so sweet to hang out in the hospital with me while I was there. I really appreciated him staying with me. After all I have been though the past few months today certainly felt like a gift. =)

It's been a while.

So many things have been going on with me in the last few months...my poor blog has suffered horribly. At first I didn't even know if I wanted to share all that I have been going through and I'm still not. However, that hardly gives me a good excuse not to blog at least once and a while. I've been wanting to put my feelings down for a while now but just haven't had the words. In church today we sang all 7 verses of How Firm a Foundation. Verse four really struck a cord with me.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow,
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee, and sanctify to thee,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

I am having some health issues. A tumor to be exact. They found it when I had my colonoscopy. It's in my rectum. I will be having surgery in a little over two weeks. I am feeling that all will be well. Yet it is still stressful. I have always been healthy so to have something somewhat major wrong with me is very new to me. The doctor says he would be surprised if the tumor was cancer. It's soft and he seems to think once I have surgery I should be just fine...I am grateful for that diagnosis....it's what I am holding onto as I prepare for this "event". It gives me hope...and I need that right now. You see the biggest issue is I don't do hospitals for me, I only go visit other people in the hospital. I didn't even give birth to my own children for heaven sakes. So it's kind of the whole fear of the unknown that is getting to me right now.

 But then I think of all the great examples I have. The first one that comes to mind is Jeremy when he had his surgery back in 2004. The poor boy was in major pain for a long time before we got approval for the surgery for his pectus carinatum. Never once did he complain. He was a trooper. I look back at photos of him before the surgery and realize that those "thoughtful" looks I thought I was capturing on film were actually looks of pain...he was so brave....can I be any less? You always think that your children will learn from you, but in this case, I am certainly learning from him.

 When I first learned that I was going to have surgery, a very dear friend said something to me that I have been carrying with me ever since. When I think of Christ and his atonement I always think of being forgiven for the wrongs that I do. There is so much more to the atonement than that. Christ will take on our problems when we cannot handle them. I know this to be true as He has certainly made my burden much lighter by knowing that He is by my side walking this path with me and helping me to cope when I absolutely think I cannot. I am so grateful for this knowledge. I have also felt the power of prayer in my life. I have many who are praying for me. I truly believe that it is another one of the reasons I feel peaceful about this whole thing....for as scared as I am, I am uplifted by the prayers of others and I so grateful for all of you who have been keeping me in your prayers. Thank you so much.

Through all of this I have continued to scrapbook. At first not so much but then little by little I found that it's the little things in life that can bring one joy. We have this beautiful new grandson and I have quite a few photos that have been crying out to me to scrap. So if you have managed to get this far along in this blog post I figure I ought to leave you with a layout or two. Thanks for letting me ramble. I will keep you all posted.

Welcome to the Family

Kaden Kimball Morgan
Born February 4, 2013
at 4:44 PM
9 pounds 6 ounces
23 1/4 inches long
We are SO excited you are here.

Journal Your Christmas

It's that time again...it's January, and time to post my December Daily album. Now honestly there are a few little touches I need to add but for all intent and purposes it is complete. I am still waiting on a photo of Jeremy from his birthday....I wasn't there for that and this weekend is HB Costco's Holiday party so I am going to have a few photos from there that I am going to include as well but rather than keep you in suspense until I finsh I decided I would post the album now.

This year I learned that each and every December Daily album I have done (and I have done 5 of them now) seems to take on a life of it's own. When I start creating I am not quite sure how it will all turn out in the end. I started with Teresa Collins Countdown to Christmas kit this year and added some of her Christmas Cottage line as well older papers from my stash and went from there. So I highly recommend you read this post when you have some time. Sit back with something warm to drink, relax, because, this year my album is huge.  =D

Some years I stop with December 25th other years I have gone on til the end of the year and this year I went clear through the 12 days of Christmas and finished up on January 6th. My projects just seem to get bigger and bigger. This years album required 2 inch binder rings and is over 60 pages!  (GASP) I used many of Shimelle Laine's journaling prompts for my entries as well as my own ideas for stories that I wanted to tell. It truly has become a labor of love. With me working in retail, (aka Costco) it is easy to loose sight of what is really important during the holiday season. As crazy as this sounds, creating this journal at this insanely busy time of year helps me stay focused on what is important and what I do want to remember about the season. Thank you Shimelle for all your hard work on JYC....your prompts are amazing and they truly helped me to do just that, Journal MY Christmas.

It really is bigger than it looks here.

Front Cover

Manifesto

some fun decorative pieces

I had loads of fun with my new Cricut cartridge, called December 25th by Teresa Collins

My fun and crazy friends from Fountain Valley Costco

Friends always make Christmas special

I love these guys!

I was going for the looking through a window at the nativity

on this one.

My year in review page