Blueprints 2 is out

If you don't have it, you need it, lol! This is a great book to help you scrapbook more efficiently - wish I could say I had layouts in it - I tried - I got Honorable Mention in several categories, but just didn't quite get in... it has awesome layout sketches and samples, with wonderful ideas to help you scrap those pictures well and more quickly!

Email me for more information on how to get it!

As promised, here is the layout I am doing with my ladies on Saturday - - - Chocolate Chip and Close to Cocoa cardstock, Close to Cocoa Designer papers, On Board Chipboard, Close to Cocoa ink, Kraft Taffeta Ribbon. The tag and flower are both chipboard covered with stamped cardstock and inked and sanded a little bit... this is NOT my Mother's Day gift - rather that is something practical she wants and needs right now - this one is for MY book :)

In the photos, on the left, my mom back in the late 1940s in her Nurse Corp uniform (I still have buttons from this uniform). On the right, my mom and dad on Mother's Day about 3 or 4 years ago when Connie and I made her a mini album based on the Alan Jackson song, "Remember When" - cousin Josh played the song over the house's stereo system while she perused the album... and cried a little :) Below that, he most recent birthday - with several of her grandchildren goofing around in the background. Then, a picture of she and Daddy in their wedding duds and a picture of (L to R) Aunt Mildred (her older sister), mom (in front), Mary Carole (niece), Grandma (holding Connie) and John Boyd (Josh's dad, our cousin, Mary Carole's brother - and pretty much like a brother to Connie and I, too).

I left room on the tag to journal - when I figure out WHAT I want to write there :)

Jury Duty (Privilege, responsibility, free country...)

Yesterday (that would be last Friday, now!) I had Jury Duty - since it was State high-stakes testing week, I couldn't do any of the testing with students I needed to as they were doing state tests, so I didn't change it (here we can reschedule up to 6 months in the future). So, I went, and had a really hard time understanding what the gal doing the indoctrination speech was telling us, because she spoke so fast and kept moving in such a way that I couldn't read her lips, so I went up to her when she gave us a short break and asked her a few questions, which she answered, and then she sent me to talk to the people in the lobby about my hearing, and they gave me an exemption since they couldn't guarantee that I'd be able to hear a case adequately, and told me that if I get summoned again, to write "Hearing Impaired" on it and mail it back.

I really have mixed emotions about that. I have never been big on "getting out" of Jury Duty... I've done my stints in traffic court when called, and gone to JD several times and gotten booted because I was a teacher, or because I was a pastor's wife... I even sat on a murder trial one time - for three days.

I won't miss the drive into downtown (always a trip, and I am not talking mileage here)... I won't miss the masses of bodies crammed into one room, or the hike to the courthouse annexes throughout the downtown area, following our Court Officer like children on a school field trip.

But... I WILL miss being part of the process... of going in there and doing my part - because without the people like me who do so.

People sometimes wonder what is wrong with our country... in my opinion - a BIG part of what is wrong (other than the lack of Godliness - but that's for another post another day, and really they ARE tied inextricably together because we are charged to be good citizens...) - anyway, a big part of what is wrong, is the unwillingness of people to do what's right in civic matters: voting, jury duty, helping one another, being kind, good, generous and exercising self-control...

just some rambling thoughts on a very rainy Monday....

have a great week!

The 'bots

I tried posting the other day - but was unable to as the blogger bots in their infinite 'wisdom' had decided I was a sp*m blog. UGH! As much as sp*m ticks me off, being called sp*m ticks me off even more! So - if you get autonotices that I have updated my blog and want to be removed... there should be a link in there to remove yourself from being notified - please don't send me to the "dark side" of email and report this as... well... YOU know what...

now... I'll have to post my other thoughts in a separate post, lol!