SUPER CROP!!!

Saturday is the BIG Super Bowl Crop!! I love all day crops. Gives you time to actually start and complete a few projects. I just love to crop period! Hanging with friends, catching up on all the gossip news, gettng ideas/suggestions from others. It's awesome! And what's even better, Alixandra is coming to crop with us. Yep, her first ALL DAY Crop. She's home busy printing out pictures, gathering her stuff, organizing her tote, which by the way she has already called Grandpa to inform him that she is going to need a BIGGER tote since she has so much stuff. Looks like the kid just might get a BIG Mimi to drag her stuff around, LOL.

I love it when Alix comes over. Not only does it mean we get to scrap together, it also means snuggle time. She's a GREAT snuggler. She always has been. She would always need a snuggling regardless what was happening. I loved it when she and my daughter lived downstairs and she would run up the stairs right before her bedtime just to get a snuggle from me. She's almost 15 now, and still loves to snuggle. I'm 52, and I still love to snuggle with her too.

I suppose she will be bringing a few changes of clothes also. She will fiddle around with her hair and outfit, and say, "Mema, how about a photo shoot? You never know how much I can change in a few weeks". Then she fixes a 'background' with a black sheet, and brings in a few props for her 'shoot'. Personally, I think she watches America's Next Top Model too much, LOL. That girl can pose!! If Tara Banks is still doing this show in a few years, I'm sending in a portfolio of Alix. I'm sure that she will win - HANDS DOWN!!

They Love Me....

Just look, and you tell me. THEY LOVE ME!!

And I love them too....I really do!!

God Country Up There....

Well, at least I'm feeling a bit better. I have been so sick for the last few weeks, and have even been off from from work for the last 2 weeks. Upper respiratory infection. This cough is about to make me go mad. Can't do anything without coughing, and even worse, there's nothing to cough up. Just a dry, nagging cough. Grrrr.

On the home front tho...Robert and Sheena have settled on a date. July 5, 2008. WOW, only 6 months away, but will come at me at lightning speed. Everything does now days, LOL. So now we're planning a wedding. A GREAT wedding!! My baby is finally, yes, finally, getting married. I'm so proud of him. He's been a good daddy, now he will be a good husband. He's a good man that son of mine. Yep...he sure is.

For my birthday, we went to Hollye's a few weeks ago, even tho my b-day is the 22nd, hers is the 16th, we celebrate 'em together. Of course we did our Red Lobster dinner, which was fantastic. My brother, Dan and his wife, Patty went with us also. We left Friday morning, and got back late Sunday evening because we stopped in Hollywood to view a few sites, like the star's homes, etc.. Yes, before you ask, we did buy a map, LOL. The biggest site that we saw was Steven Spielberg on his cell phone phoning 911 because of an accident this kid was in. Seems the telephone pole 'jumped' out into his way. We didn't stop, but just to make sure that it was Steven S., we went back and forth like 8 times...yep, it was him. Took a picture, but because I was driving, my picture is of the asphalt. (eyeroll)

So, back to our visit with Hollye. Saturday, we decided to go eat breakfast in Solvang. We went through Los Olivos and came in the back way of Solvang. BREATHTAKING That part of the country is God's Country for sure. It's just so pretty, so colorful, just so....

We are definitely going back up there in a few weeks just to do the wine tour. I can hardly wait until it's harvesting season again. I have some GREAT photo's of a year ago, but I need more. It's for an album that I am doing, and need more of the vines.

Solvang is pretty too....but much prettier in the spring. The weather was GREAT, actually perfect for when we went. Had we gone now, it would have been a disappointment as the rains are really bad right now. So I'm glad we went when we did.

I need to go finish cutting some chipboard for a few albums, so I will post a bit later.

First Layouts of the Year

I just created these two (2) layouts from Christmas. I am loving the Creative Imaginations overlays. The pictures didn't turn out as good as I would like them to have, but I guess one can't be perfect all the time.

I'm Invisible

I got this in an email today, and thought of my BEST FREIND. I sent this to her, and her reply was just a smile in an email. No words, nothing, just a smile. So, this is for you...


I'm Invisible

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?" Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom.

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it?" I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel?" I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please."

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again.

She's going,
she's going,
she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a hair clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this." It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of w hat you are building when no one sees."

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything. A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the workman replied,"Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing pieces fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sac rifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, "My mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, "You're gonna love it there."

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Great Job, MOM! Share this with all the Invisible Moms you know.... I just did.