Kendall is taking Literature this year, as part of her English curriculum. I loved taking literature, because I love to read. Kendall, however....well, not so much. Not unless you are asking her to read Twilight, in which case, she is all too thrilled to read. Why can't all books capture the attention of young, teenage girls like the Twilight series? Believe me, I understand the appeal, having just finished Eclipse this morning myself. But, I have always loved to read.Since it's going to be a little more difficult for Kendall, I decided to make her a little bookmark to keep with her. That way, when she's being "tortured" with great literature, she will at least have a little bit of love in her book to take along with her.All of the papers are from the SU! Bella Rose DSP series. I drew a grid on the back of the red dsp to align my circle punch to cut windows into the paper. Then, I adhered the paper to a piece of white cs and using my Stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped the flower images into the top and bottom windows. In the center window, I used another pattern in the series and used the same punch to cut the paper to fill the window and then stamped the Sending You My Love image onto white cs and punched it out with my 1" circle punch and then adhered it to the center. I finished it off with a scalloped edge that I punched with my SU! scalloped border punch in yet another pattern in the series and adhered the whole thing onto some Kraft cardstock for extra re-inforcement. I then added punched tab on the top that I embossed with a flourish in white embossing powder for a little extra zing and a white brad and some Riding Hood Red ribbon.I suppose it isn't going to make Kendall like reading anymore than she already does, but at least she'll have something pretty to hold her place ;) 
Monday was the first day of school here. It's a bit earlier than in California, but the kids get out in the middle of May here, so they go back earlier. Poor Kendall got kind of short-changed this year, having gone to school in California last year and then having to go back early here, but she will get out in May next year.She was understandably nervous, it being her first day at a new school, and starting off into the world of High School (gasp!) We picked her up on Saturday from her mom and spent the day on Sunday with Jay's family so that was a good distraction for her. We got home and got to bed nice and early. Another change for her (as if there wasn't enough already) is that school starts at 7:10 at her school. She started at 9:00 back in California, so we have to make sure that we adhere to a consistent bed time so that she can get enough rest. Jay took the day off on Monday, so we both got up with her to wish her well on her first day of school and Jay walked her to the bus stop. Ok, not too the bus stop, but close to the bus stop. As close as he could before Kendall saw some other kids and told him it was time to leave. He did get a chance to pray with her before saying goodbye and he sent her off.Her first day of school went really well. She made two friends and was finding her way around just fine. The first day there were only freshmen there and they got a tour of the school and had assemblies for the first part of the day. After school, we picked her up and took her to her ortho appointment. Nothing like hitting the ground running! She had a painful appointment because it had been two months, but she was a champ and held her head high and tried not to complain. After her appointment, Jay had to get a hair cut and then we suprised Kendall and went to Verizon and upgraded her cell phone. She had an older model that she had been using for two years, with little complaint. We decided that since she's in HS now and is using her phone to keep in touch with her friends, she deserved to get a new phone with a full keyboard so that she can text her little heart out. She's also welcome to use the phone, of course, but that is just not nearly as cool!So, our little doll is now in High School and is thriving. She's come home every day with a smile on her face. Even yesterday, when she got a little lost - in the rain - coming home from the bus stop. She was still smiling. I hope this year is her best yet!
Jay and I decided to extend our weekend away to Heaven Fest a little bit, since it was our last weekend before we picked up Kendall. We got an inexpensive hotel in Loveland (Comfort Inn, I believe it was) and fortunately for us, we were too tired to care a thing about the room. The bed wasn't very comfortable, and the room was just so-so, but it was a place to shower and to sleep and we didn't have to drive all the way home that night. We got up Sunday morning and had breakfast at Panera Bread, thanks to John.Oh, I should explain John to you.....Jay got a GPS for me for my birthday this year, which comes in handy a lot for a girl like me that could get lost in a chair. I don't know how I would have made it around when we first arrived here in CO without my handy little navigation tool. I happen to love Brittish accents and on the Tom Tom GPS, you can download different voices. We downoaded John Cleese's voice, so whenever we have the GPS running, John says, "turn right, then take the motorway" or "go straight on!" I get such a kick out of it and well, John makes getting around a lot easier and a lot more fun.So, back to Panera Bread. We asked John to help us find a restaurant in the morning and we ended up at Panera Bread and had a yummy breakfast and then we headed out to Estes Park. Jay has been before, but it was my first time there. It was incredible! It might get exhausting hearing me say that all the time but the scenery here is all so new to me and I just love it.We started off at the histroric Stanley Hotel. I love historic hotels (the Hotel Del Coronado is probably my favorite) and they were celebrating 100 years. Now, I have never read The Shining, or watched The Shining, but I had heard that the movie was filmed at the Stanley. I learned while I was there that Stephen King was inspired to write the story and actually wrote the book while staying at the Stanley, but the film was shot on a movie set and Stephen King wasn't happy with the final product, so he did a remake, which was shot at the actual hotel. The mini series was shot there. That's a little bit of trivia for your next party :).After we left the hotel, we drove into the park and went on a couple of hikes. You could easily spend the entire day there (if not several days) exploring all of the different hiking trails, lakes, waterfalls....it was so quiet and peaceful. It was a great ending to a fabulous weekend. I think the best part was spending time together. We are just the best of friends and I am so, incredibly happy that God brought us together.
I took this shot on the way to the park
The historic Stanley Hotel
You can't read the sign, but it says Celebrating 100 Years
Check out the view from the pool! This is in front of the hotel.
I thought these were real, but they aren't. They are still pretty, but I wanted to smell them and well, they smell like dust...
Lounging in the lobby
The ballroom
I love this staircase
This dollhouse appeared in The Shining mini series
Bear Lake
Doesn't this look fake? It's just too pretty!
Our family LOVES to go to concerts. I wasn't sure how many opportunities there would be in CO and after having lived within driving distance of LA, where there are a multitude of venues for music and theatre, I was a little unsure of what we would find in the way of entertainment here in the rocky mountains (aside from all of that healthy, exercise-ridden stuff). Sometimes, a girl just wants to be entertained!You can imagine how excited I was when I discovered Heaven Fest. I was listening to Way FM, which is an awesome Christian radio station and heard an announcement regarding the music festival coming to Denver in August. I immediately added Heaven Fest as a friend on Facebook and started getting updates. The prices were $29 or whatever you can afford (how cool is that?) and they had 80 bands on 8 stages. The girls were going to be with their mom, so I ordered two tickets for Jay and I and we waited with anticipation from the time we got to CO until the day of the concert. This was going to be our first show after the move and definitel one to remember!The day started off right. We stopped at It's a Grind (our absolute favorite coffee shop) for a cup of joe and bagel and traffic was light up until we arrived a few miles from the venue and then we were at a dead stop. We had a couple of miles to go and by the rate of speed we were driving (zero) it didn't look like we were going to make it in time to see the first band on our list, which was Seventh Day Slumber. We saw some cars turning off on a separate road and watched this for about 20 minutes and finally took a chance and followed them. This turned out to be a very good decision. We were able to bypass a lot of the traffic and got checked in and dropped off our canned food (they asked everyone to bring a can of food for the food bank) and got our wrist bands and made it to the stage with only a few minutes to spare.Seventh Day Slumber was amazing! This was our second time seeing them and hearing Joseph's testimony will bring you to tears (and to your knees.) He speaks with so much passion and you can just hear the love in his voice that he has for Jesus and for others. He is such an example of God's deliverance. The music was awesome also. They have such talent.Next, we saw Kutless. This was our third time seeing them and they did not disappoint. They played several of their rock songs and were all over the stage. We could not help but sing along and enjoy the energy in the crowd.After Kutless, Skillet came on the stage. This was my third time seeing Skillet, and Jay's second. I actually took Jay to see Skillet on our third date. We went to the House of Blues in Hollywood and saw Twelve Stones, Pillar, Skillet, and some other band that neither of us can remember the name of. Anyhoo, Skillet rocked! Actually, in the words of John Cooper, they "rocked our faces off." They played a song off of their new album called Monster and the crowd went wild. They incorporate all kinds of string instruments along with the guitar, drums and keyboard and have such a unique sound. The day just kept getting better.Admittedly, it was hot....very hot. It was dusty.....very dusty. We were on our feet the entire day, there was no shade and porta potties are well, porta potties. Still, it was worth it and we would do it again all over again.We wrapped up the day with Third Day. They came on late and we were all standing around wondering if technical difficulties were the hold up. After about 20 minutes, the announcer came on the mic and told us that what we could not see behind the stage was some very dark clouds and some very large lightning strikes and if we wanted to see Third Day, then we needed to pray. So, everyone started praying and Third Day was able to come on an deliver and amazing performance. I was especially excited to see them because it was my first time and they were absolutely incredible. Mac has the most beautiful voice and when they sang, "Thief" everyone was just silent and humbled. It was truly amazing.At 8:30, all of the music stopped and they had a nameless, faceless worship team come up to the stage and lead us in worship and read scripture and then we all took communion together (among 20,000) people. That was an experience that, unfortunately, I cannot put into words. God's presence was so powerful and you could just feel His love cover us. It was an absolutely amazing day.
Seventh Day Slumber
Just us
Seventh Day Slumber
That's John Micah from Kutless hiking up the laddar
A little tired, a little sunburned, a little thirsty and a lot happy
The skate ramp
Another one of the stages
This is why you need to sponsor a child with Compassion International 
Just a tad dusty
It was fun taking a shower that night!
Throw up your rock fist!
Third Day
A peak at the sky - not a drop of rain!
I have been watching Jennifer Mcguire's Thinking Inking videos over at Two Peas and was inspired to break out my alcohol inks and start using them on cards.On this card, I took some glossy paper from Ranger and stamped my image from SU!'s Fresh Cuts set using Top Boss embossing ink and then embossed the image using SU! white embossing powder. Then, I combined Current and Slate alcohol inks, along with some silver mixative and applied them over the image using my took from Ranger. I zapped it with my heat gun once more to dry the ink and then I stamped the Thank You from the same set using Staz On black ink.I also applied the same color combination of alcohol inks and mixative to a white flower from Hero Arts and a clear button.I added some green paper at the bottom that I punched using my eyelet border punch from SU! and some pink ribbon from Offray and then adhered everything onto Basic Black cardstock for some contrast.Jennifer, thank you for inspiring me to use some of the products that I have sitting around but never got around to using.
I made this card over a week ago (which was still late for the challenge) but as you will notice by all of the postings today, I got a little behind and am trying to get caught up.If you have not been participating, Jen Del Muro does a sketch challenge every Saturday. She always comes up with fabulous sketches week after week without fail and I always find myself looking at card layouts differently after doing one of her sketches. Does that panel really need to be straight? Can I maybe use various patterns in my design instead of sticking to one pattern and cardstock? How about some more layers?Jen, thank you so much for challenging us week after week!!!! Big hugs to you.
On July 19th, Jay's brother Eric and his wife Mindy welcomed Christopher Lee into the world. Both mommy and baby are healthy and doing extremely well.We were able to drive out on Christopher's one week birthday and meet him face to face. He smells wonderful and is so very, very cuddly. He's also very squeaky. Every time I held him he would fall asleep and then start making these adorable little squeaking noises. He didn't make them when anyone else held him. He must have just felt so comfortable in my arms that he could truly be himself without fear of judgement ;).Christopher's big brother Jason is adjusting well so far to the changes in his family. We brought him a big brother present and gave him lots of love and attention so he knows that just because he has to share now, doesn't mean there isn't enough love to go around.
Squeak! Squeak!
