So, here's what's been happening...

ST. LOUIS TRIP


On Saturday, May 3, Chris and I, along with Curt Nicholson and Justin Lockhart, headed out for a day trip to St. Louis, Missouri. Curt kept us entertained the whole time with stories and discussion. :-) We stopped at a Waffle House for breakfast about an hour into the trip. Chris got me a Waffle House coffee mug there. (We collect coffee mugs from the places we travel, since my kitchen is decorated with a coffee/gingerbread man theme). When we arrived in St. Louis, we went to the St. Louis Gateway Arch. We watched a film on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In watching that, we learned something that we hadn't known before. Did you know that Sacogowea - the Shoshone Indian woman that helped Lewis and Clark - was actually a captured slave? And did you know that when Lewis and Clark's expedition met up with the Shoshone Indians, Sacogowea learned that the chief of the Shoshone tribe was her BROTHER? I didn't know that, but I thought it was really cool that God had that all worked out for them!


ANYWAY, we also went to the top of the arch this time... not something you want to do if you are claustrophobic or scared of heights! (But really cool if you AREN'T!) Here are some pics:

Chris and I at the top of the arch - 630 feet in the air!
The windows that you can look out of... we were actually LYING down to look out the windows

Chris is now a CONEHEAD (and I think he's CRAZY!) :-P
Our second annual self-portrait (timed) at the Arch

From the Arch, we walked over to Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards were playing the Chicago Cubs that day, and Curt is a Cards fan; Justin is a Cubs fan... good times! The weather was a little chilly at 60 degrees with a cool wind blowing through. Eventually the sun came out, and it was a much nicer day!

Here we are at the Stadium

UNWANTED GUEST
Sunday night, May 4, we came home from church and saw this big black spider dangling on it's web between some boxes/bags of tools in the front of the garage. When we pulled my car in, the headlights spotlighted the nasty thing. As we were walking in, I stopped to look more closely at the spider. The spider was hanging upside down on its web, and much to my dismay, I noticed a VERY VIVID red hourglass marking on its abdomen! YIKES! It's a black widow spider! I told Chris to come and look, but by the time I moved out of the way, and he got to where he could see it, the spider had crawled under the bag, and we couldn't find it. (That makes for a GREAT night's sleep for one who has crazy nightmares anyway!)

The next night, I decided to clean and spray the garage with a pesticide before we left at midnight for our trip to FL. Chris was catching a little shut-eye before driving the almost 9 hours. I proceeded to pull out all of the tools, and saw the spider on the floor with its legs all curled up like it was dead. I was relieved to know that it had not adventured into my house, and that it was already dead. I took a broom and swept all the dead bugs, spiders and dirt into a pile in the center of the floor, and then sprayed the area with bug spray. When I went to sweep the pile outside, I touched the what-I-thought-was-dead spider with the broom, and the spider's legs flew out to the sides! YIKES again... It was NOT DEAD! I ran inside and grabbed a glass jar and captured the spider. Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering WHY IN THE WORLD I DIDN'T JUST KILL THE THING! Well, I wanted to see for sure if it was a Black Widow spider, and I wanted Chris to see it. When I got it in the jar, I discovered that I was right the first time... it definitely is a Black Widow!:

I didn't know that we had Black Widow Spiders around here, but apparently we do! I think that I've sucked up two more of them (before this) in the vacuum cleaner in the house, but I didn't see their bellies because they were up against the ceiling in our living room. (** shudder**) Time to call TERMINEX!

PENSACOLA TRIP
At midnight on Mon night/Tues morning, Chris and I left for Pensacola, FL, for PCC's graduation. Chris' youngest sister, Tiffany, graduated with her Master's Degree in Bible Exposition from Pensacola Theological Seminary... with a 4.0 GPA! She is SO smart, but so humble about it... she's amazing! Chris' youngest brother, Jon, graduated from PCC with his Bachelor's in Business Management. He actually graduated in December, but walked in May. My youngest brother's wife, Caroline, also graduated with her Bachelor's Degree in Mathmatics. Caroline also graduated with honors! We are so proud of all of them.

On Tuesday morning, we met my bro&SIL, Nathan & Caroline at IHOP for breakfast. We spent almost 2 hours catching up with them.From there, we headed over to Chris' brother's house, and hung out with his family for the rest of the day. 8 family members weren't able to make it, but we enjoyed the time with the other 13! We also got to meet our newest niece, Jacquline, who is 9 months old. I know that we're biased, but our nieces and nephews are ADORABLE! Here are some pics of the day:

Jacquline with me
Chris & Jacquline

Nathan, Kailey, & Kimberly

The gang at Logan's Steakhouse for dinner

That night we stayed at the home of our friends, Rob & Emily Hazewinkel. No pics of them, since they were so tired and dressed for bed, but here are their kiddos, Stephen & Katie. They are expecting #3.

The next morning we got up and make a VERY quick, 15 minute visit with our friends, BJ and Adrian Escamilla and their brand new baby girl, Peyton. The visit was so quick, I didn't get a pic of them, either.

From there we headed to graduation. Here are some pics of the graduates. Congratulations, you guys! :-)

My bro&SIL, Nathan & Caroline
Nathan, Caroline, me & Chris
(Nathan, Chris and I are slouching down so that Caroline looks taller!)

Tiffany & Jon
Chris' family that was at graduation
(his SIL stayed home with the younger kids)

MY FIRST MOTHER'S DAY
I was not looking forward to my first Mother's Day. In spite of the fact that we, as Christians, believe that life begins at conception, unfortunately we often do not recognize ladies that have been pregnant and miscarried, or even expecting moms as "MOTHERS" on Mother's Day. However, as soon as a lady is pregnant, she truly is a mother, whether or not she gets to hold that baby in her arms!

That said, I was struggling with that thought some the week prior to Mother's Day. On Monday, the 5th, I was at work. The little boy I work with was really sick, and very cuddly. As I was holding him on my shoulder, all of the sudden it hit me and I had an emotional meltdown! I started sobbing uncontrollably, and cried out, "God, I want a baby to hold SO BAD!" Poor D raised his head and looked at me like I had two heads! I only cried for a few minutes, and I was over it, but it was kind of crazy! I just kept thinking that I know that I'm a mom, but who else is actually going to recognize that?

Well, I have some very thoughtful friends/family members... and THEY recognized it! First of all, I got a Mother's Day card in the mail from my best friend on Thurs. Then, on Sunday morning, we were getting ready to walk out the door to go to church, and there is a card sitting on my purse. Chris told me I had to open it right away, so I did. It was a SUPER sweet (and funny) card, and inside he included a gift... he bought me plane tickets to go see my best friend over Memorial Day weekend! Not only that, but he had already called the guys at my work to rearrange my work schedule so that I didn't have to worry about it! Of course, I cried! :-) But I also couldn't stop smiling at the card... it was perfect for us! Here are the cards:

Then, I was scheduled to be in the nursery for the AM service (for which I was kind of glad - I don't know that I could have sat through a sermon about mothers without crying!) Anyway, as soon as I walked in, one of my closest friends here walked up to me and gave me a huge hug and told me "Happy Mother's Day." She told me that she had been thinking of me and praying for me all morning. It's so great to have compassionate friends! Several other women said, "Happy Mother's Day" to me as well, including both my mom & MIL. It just soothed my heart to know that even though all of my babies are in Heaven, I still am a mom... whether I get to hold my own babies here on earth or not! They definitely have it made, being in Heaven with Jesus!

I also got this rose on our bus route... all the moms riding the buses received roses.

Monday, I received this card that my mom made for me.
All in all, it was a wonderful Mother's Day, in spite of the circumstances! God is SO GOOD, and I have an AWESOME husband!

Well, that's about it for now! Thanks for bearing with me through this LOOOOONG post! Have a GREAT weekend!

Stamps, Scraps, Stitches-n-Stuff

If you missed it, I just started a new blog for all my creative stuff. It's called "Stamps, Scraps, Stitches-n-Stuff" and you can find it here. I just finished posting all of the pictures that I had of all of my cross-stitch projects. Thanks to my SIL, Julie, who taught me how to cross-stitch... and, as my husband puts it, "Created a monster!" :-) I appreciate you taking the time to teach me, and I hope you enjoy the pics!

I am working on posting all of my past projects first in some kind of order, then I will add new things as they are finished.

Thanks for looking!

Closing date and new website

Dawn... this is just for you... we are set to close on the house July 16th. Everything should be fine since the house is only 4 years old, and financing shouldn't be a problem. However, there is always that chance...

Also, I wanted to let everyone that is interested know that I started a new blog specifically to post pictures of my cards, cross-stitches, crafts, etc. The name is "Stamps, Scraps, Stitches-n-Stuff". I haven't posted any of my stuff yet, but there is a welcome post on there. Keep checking it... I'm going to try to post all of my old stuff on there as quickly as possible. :-)

Now, my cards and cross-stitch pictures

This is the cross-stitch that I made for Nathan and Caroline's wedding present. Of course, this is the unframed version. I'll post another picture when I get it back framed. I actually used a lot of metallic and iridescent thread in this, so it makes it have a little more "bling."

Anniversary card for my brother and sister-in-law. I used gel pens on the picture to make things a little more sparkly.
"You Grow Girl!" I love the little colored safety pin on the tag. :-) The inside says... "Congratulations on your Swell News... Happy Waiting!"
Flutter by oh butterfly... Birthday card for my SIL
Flutter by oh butterfly... Birthday card for my MIL
I liked the idea from the first card, and just changed the colors and layout a bit for this one. I love the combination of the Cool Carribean with Chocolate Chip.

Father's Day card that I made at a stamping party about a month ago. The letters are chipboard, and we colored them so they looked like suede (sort of!) This one we sent to my FIL

Father's Day card for my dad. He loves lighthouses, and has the focal point picture (or one similar to it) on his wall at home. This isn't a typical Nautical color scheme, but I really wanted to use this ribbon.
Father's Day card for Chris' grandpa. He used to LOVE to fish. I messed this one up a little when I didn't trim the blue cardstock to the right size. And, as usual, some things aren't straight, but I like it anyway. I love the color combination. Father's Day card for my grandpa. I'm not sure that he is into trains, but I thought they were pretty cool. I like the photo corners that I made with my stamp punch, and also the embossed train at the bottom. I used distressing embossing powder, which is pretty cool.
Another card I made at a stamping party this week. We used Pearl-Ex for the focal pictures, and embossing powder for the background. These colors are REALLY cool, too... very masculine.

Fourth of July card - also made at the stamping party. This one used Pearl-Ex as well in the fireworks background and the children's parade image. The flag was cut out of patterned paper.

More cards

Here are some more cards that I have made recently. I'm on a roll with the masculine cards... I have 2 brothers and a BIL that have birthdays within a month of each other. Next up... more thank you cards, a SIL birthday, MIL birthday, and 3 more Father's Day cards! Stay tuned!

My future SIL's bridal shower card (I wasn't totally pleased with the result, but I couldn't figure out what else to do, and I had to get it in the mail to make it in time for her shower. The silver entwined hearts are from their wedding invitation.)

BIL's birthday card
Father's Day card made at the last stamping party

Country coffee Thank You
(another one of my favorites... the gingam is actually fabric)

My Brother's Birthday card

Masculine Thank You card

Recent Cards & Cross-stitch

Here are all of my recent cards that I have made, as well as a cross-stitch that I just finished for our niece. By the way, I created the pattern for the cross-stitch ~ I cut the lion and giraffe out of another pattern, and then did the alphabet writing myself. I know the bottom part is hard to read, but I didn't want it to be the focal point. The very bottom line says, "Stitched with love by Aunt Heather Beth." I have a lot more cards to make today, plus other errands, so I have to run. Enjoy the pictures!

Misc. Cards - April 2007

Here are some of the cards I made this month. I think I somehow deleted the pictures of the three FAVORITE cards I made... which I was very disappointed about. Anyway, there are patriotic ones, Mother's Day, anniversary, birthdays, etc. I apologize once again for the quality of some of the pics... I was told that you're not supposed to use flash when photographing cards, but the light in my house is so yellow that it turns out like this! I generally use flash, and then edit the pic to decrease the amount of exposure in order to make it look more like it does in real life. I'll have to make those 3 cards again... I LOVED them! (Go figure... it would be my FAVORITE cards that I delete pics of!!! Hope you like 'em!

Another Military Card

Since Dora requested that I send her the image "Godspeed" so that she could show it to her mom, I am posting the card that I made to send to her for that purpose. (Dora's brother is in Iraq right now.) I just bought the "Soldier..." stamp the other day, and love it. Anyway, here is a salute to our soldiers:

"Soldier~Because of your bravery, courage, and sacrifice, liberty & freedom are still ours. We are deeply grateful. GODSPEED"

Inside: "You are in my thoughts and prayers."
Back: "Missing you"

GODSPEED

"GODSPEED"

So, it's after 3am, and for whatever reason, tonight I can't sleep. Maybe I drank too much tea today and the caffiene got to me. Anyway, since I'm up, I figured I'd share with you what it is I do at 3am when I can't sleep!

Here is another card I made for our family member that is at Basic Training. A friend of mine owns this stamp set, which is now retired (meaning that I can't get it unless I come across it on ebay or something.) Being the good friend that she is, she stamped several variations of the images and sent them to me, so that I could use them. Since the set is retired, I am allowed to make copies of the images, which is nice. I cut out all of the images from the paper she sent, then put vellum over top to try to hide all the lines from the layers of paper. The word "GODSPEED" is stamped in red and embossed with clear powder on the vellum. The second picture I played with a little and you can see it stands out a little bit more.

Well, with that, I am off to bed to try to get some "shut-eye" before I have to get up for work in 3 hours! YIKES! I hope you enjoy my card, and remember to pray for our servicemen and women that sacrifice on a daily basis to provide us with our freedom. Thank you to those of you in the military!

Stampin' Party Cards 03-22-07

Here are some cards that I stamped at a stampin' party I went to on Thursday. We made 3 cards each of the get well & sympathy cards, and then 1 each of 2 Easter cards. Since I don't send Easter cards, I made the flower one generic to enable me to add sayings for later use. The first card shown in each of the sets of 3 is the one made exactly like the samples. The other cards are my own variations using creative license! :-)

BTW - at the party they had lasagna, garlic bread, and a decadent chocolate brownie dessert! All of these are close to being my favorites...especially the bread. However, I was VERY disciplined and didn't eat ONE BITE OF ANYTHING!! (I was very proud of myself, in case you couldn't tell!) :-)

The card below is one I made for a family member of ours that is in Basic Training for the military right now. I am excited to get my new stamping order because I bought another patriotic set to use for the cards I send to that person. I apologize for the color... I took the picture without using the flash, and the artificial light caused it to have a yellow undertone. It looked much better in real life, believe me! :-)

"Some Gave All"

Valentine's Day

I know this is a little late for Valentine's Day, but I wanted to post it anyway. I had a pretty good day. My husband sent me an e-card from work because he didn't have a chance to get to the store. It was really cute and sweet. After Chris got off work, we met at Fazoli's for dinner (this was about 8:30 pm). Chris promised me a "rain check" for a good dinner at a nicer restaurant later when we could enjoy it more.

One of my favorite things about Valentine's Day is my annual gift from my father-in-law. Ever since the year that Chris and I were dating, Chris' dad has sent me a box of Lindt chocolates. (Chris' mom, all of his sisters, sisters-in-law, and granddaughters get boxes of chocolate, too.) They are wonderful, and I only allow myself to eat one a day until the box is gone. The best part is that Chris' dad reminds me every year that I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO SHARE WITH CHRIS!!! I enjoy that part! :*) Chris gets a gift from his mom every year for Valentine's Day, so I don't feel bad about not sharing... at all! I am so thankful for wonderful in-laws.

I received another surprise for Valentine's Day this year. My grandma sent me a hand stamped Valentine's Day card.

My grandma has never stamped before this. They had a ladies' fellowship at her church that was a "cruise" theme. On this "cruise" they had different stations that you could do different things, and one of them was stamping. My grandma made the card above on this "cruise" and sent it to me. I was very honored! :-) I told her that I was very impressed, and we determined that it goes to show you that you CAN "teach an old dog new tricks" (Grandma is almost 79 years old) as long as they still want to learn!

All in all, it was a pretty good day!

Recent Creativity...

Precious Moments Cross-stitch for my nephew

(he was only born 2 years before I finished this!...But hey, you have to give me credit,

I didn't start it until 3 months before this Christmas, and finished it in January!)

Better late than never, they say!

For those of you who love stamping and crafts, I'm posting some more of my recent creations for your enjoyment. I'm not really fancy with the cards... that takes time and money! (Or at least more creativity than I have!) Also, please forgive the quality of scans/pictures. Some of them I had to scan b/c I didn't have the camera at home, and my scanner does not like cards that don't lie completely flat. I'll leave it up to your imagination to view the real thing! Hope you enjoy my version of art!