Just a minute of my time...

Abc's of fall

H is for Halloween and I can't believe its already here!  Next thing you know it will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas!

Work in Progress scrapbooking

Here I go again with the mini books.  I've had this one for quite a while, got it when we were on our trip to the NOVI convention and was inspired by the stickers in the Work in Progress kit

I started it before Chelsea had gotten in the accident on a melancholy day thinking about Ryan, life, etc...

thinking about my dad and how he always told us "life's not fair"

and how fast life changes, and as if I didn't already know, her accident was a reminder of just how quickly life can change!

one of my favorite pictures from Lake Chautauqua

more from Lake Chautauqua

my music man!  I loved the font of the thickers but they were white, so I quickly changed that with a brown ink pad, now they work with the layout!

Making a list...

Who says its too early to start crafting for Christmas?  Certainly not me, especially when today I got inspired and had some time to play and made a couple of these mini's in no time!

I saw this post over at one of my favorite creative blogs Poppie paperie and decided to give them a try.  Her directions are awesome and they went together quickly!  

I can't wait to make more as gifts for the upcoming holidays!

Project life and other scrapbooking

Did you do it this year?  Either the project 365 or the Project Life from Becky Higgins?  I got one for myself this year and for my sister.  She is loving it and filling out those cards daily.  I'm finding it like another chore.  

I like doing the picture part and for the most part get a picture every day, but now I'm having a tough time writing about my day.  Trying to keep up with the details on Twitter has helped, but not sure if I'm going to tackle this project again in 2011?  If anything I'm actually leaning towards the digital version...

Also coming up, one of my favorite things to do during the month of December is the December daily.  Each year at the Bertram Inn we get ours ready and its perfect to add the details of one of the busiest months of the year.  It helps me appreciate all the days in the season, and I like that!

2009 December daily

Here's a link to a post from last years December daily

Deer Season

Chelsea always got the talk from her father... "watch for deer" whenever leaving the house, so often she joked about it because she said according to dad its always deer season.

On Friday night after coming home to work a shift at Giant Eagle she headed back to college.  At almost 10pm when things were quieting down at home and I was ready to grab my kindle and do some reading the phone rang...

It was Chelsea and I could hear the panic and upset in her voice, though I couldn't get enough audible words to know what she was trying to tell me.  She was crying which made me cry, something I think all parents would do when they hear the hurt and fear in their child. But I need to find out what's wrong so I can begin to help her.  Joel is up out of his chair with the anxiety of knowing something is wrong, but not knowing what.

Finally I got enough out of her to know she hit a deer, Joel then took the phone to talk to her, telling her to get out of her car and away from it.  I ran to tell Zach we were leaving and Chels was in an accident, for which he had no plans of staying home and waiting to see what happened, he was going with us.

I was urging Joel off the phone so we could call her on a cell phone and get driving.  I wanted to fly... anything to get there quickly

Finally we are driving and talking with her periodically as more police would show up.  Luckily there was an ambulance right behind her when the accident happened and some drivers stopped to make sure she was okay.  Four police cars arrived and directed traffic and had her get in one of their cars.

She wasn't shaking from being cold, she later told me, but from nerves.  They wanted her to go to the hospital, but at the time she felt fine.  I think her nerves had taken over.

It's an hour plus drive to her school and she was almost back, in that time they towed her car away and the police took her back to the station until we could get there.  Her poor boyfriend was at work and had no idea all this was going on. 

Finally we found the police station and her and were all reunited!  She started aching as they say happens to most people shortly after the accident and her head was hurting so we knew our next stop was going to be at the hospital. 

We got to the emergency room, they got her in quickly and did the necessary x-rays and we waited.  By this time Ben arrived and waited with the boys while we were already back with the doctor.  They gave her Vicodin and a couple of prescriptions and sent us on our way.

They had first said her vehicle was totaled and the tow truck driver thought for sure she had rear ended a big truck until the police told him it was a deer.  

This morning I read this article on deer in Ohio and continuing to thank God that she is okay!

 

Carving pumpkins

Yep, we still do it!

It's an evening of family fun and this time Joel picked up the camera!

he did pretty good capturing the event, a fun night for sure!

All I wanted was everyone to safely carve their pumpkins since images of my sister cutting her fingers almost off years ago kept flashing in my mind...

Zach the artist had another idea of carving pumpkins!

Abc's of fall

G is for Ghosts    

a ceramic ghost I painted many years ago!

Abc's of fall

F is for Frankenstein

one of my favorite decorations my girlfriend made years ago!

Weekend away...

I don't think my husband and I have taken any trips alone since the kids were little, and so when we were on our way home from our Lake Chautauqua trip and passed Presque Isle we started talking about this being our little getaway. Joel knew the company who had helped build a hotel nearby and we had recently heard about the new casino so within days of our return from our Labor Day weekend I booked this trip.

We had perfect fall weather for the outdoor walking

the state park is amazing

with 11 beaches

A place we both decided warrants a trip back with the kids next summer!

 

On Saturday we headed over to the casino for a few hours.  Joel had never been gambling so we thought we'd check it out.  Later we headed out to Smokey Bones for dinner.  We went up and down with our winnings,  me up and Joel mostly down. Even though the horse racing is only until september we both agreed we would go there again!

With the state park, Erie Zoo and Waldameer Park all in one area and only a two hour drive from home, its a perfect weekend getaway

 

 

Abc's of fall

F is for fall colors....