Christmas

I love this time of the year, sadly I wasn't feeling like i loved this time of yeah this year. I never thought I'd find the words bah humbug coming out of my mouth, but this year I did not want Christmas, I felt so stressed with peoples ideas of how much money should be spend on gifts. I wanted to take down the Christmas decorations and just throw it all in the bag and say forget it.
After my Grandpa called asking about Christmas cards and if I sent mine out, I started to feel bad for being so stressed and for wanting to call it quits on Christmas.
With that I started to make the cards, and finished them off, after doing them it kind of jump started my Christmas spirit and I made goodies, and wrapped presents. Now I am just about ready for the big day.
After Christmas I am going to see the family for a few days, and I cannot wait to see the kids open the gifts that we bought them. Seeing the faces of those I have gifts for is what makes this time of year for me.



Back in Nov we went to San Fran with some of Jakes family, to catch the Bears game in Oakland. I had never been to San Fran or Oakland. I will be honest I liked the pier and the shops along the way were fun to look at. The games was the first NFL game I have been to. We had great seats and the only thing that would have made it better is if the Bears would have won.


This was at Ghiradelli Shop, a 5lb chocolate bar. Anyone who knows me knows that this is heaven for me :)



This is us at the game (after the game) Our seats where right there though, 3rd row nice nice :)

Long time

So yeah, it is has been awhile, we have been busy :) We had the funeral for my uncle. It was done wonderfully, a sad reason to get the family all together but it was nice to see them. Some past problems mended and it brought the whole family together for the first time in a very long time. Dave would have been proud and happy that some good came of it.
I went to Utah after to spend some family time, that was much needed. I got to see the twins for the first time. I love just love all those kids. I wish Stephy could just make me some :)


I loved seeing the kids, and I miss them tons.

After that I started planning a party for Halloween. I planned a Murder party in which we all got to act a part in. Everyone dressed even better than I thought, and I made some great spooky food. Mummies, eyeballs, spooky jello, and pumpkin casserole. It was great.

To the Joker in our lives.

I have felt since I found out, that I needed to speak my feelings on this.

I am sorry if this is long, but those who know me know I always have alot to say..

Yesterday started off pretty normal, other than the fact I couldn't sleep and was up before I ever get up by myself. I started to paint loose nails and the day slowly slipped away. Texts back and froth from my little sister telling me she's been having a bad morning and wants the day to end. By early afternoon my phone laughed ( as it is her ringtone) The ringing of the laughing broke the words I was about to hear. Our jokester of an uncle passed away that morning in a car crash. The silence hit me, and the thoughts of my cousin (his only child and son) and my aunt. Then to my father who is his big brother. Lost for words I tried to comfort my sister.
She had found out from our grandparents, who tried to reach Dad but Danielle had the phone at work. I got a hold of our oldest sister to go tell my Dad to call Grandpa.
My Dad left in shock, as they were the pranksters of the family, and close.
As I live in Vegas and away from family, I tried to stay busy, but the thoughts of what would I do if it was my Dad, or my husband or brother. We just never know when that day will come. After a few hours I went on facebook and saw the horrifying picture from the crash. (I am not posting it, as it is just hard to see but here is the link) http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/man-killed-in-early-morning-crash-on-interstate-15.html

My memories of Dave are few, but wonderful. He always had a smile for everyone, didnt matter who you were or what you did. A prank to catch you off your guard. Him and my Dad shared a familiar laugh. Was always witty and quick but never rude.
He was and is a great man. I remember when I was younger him and Alex stopped by our house, me and my cousin played with Dave, and he messed with us and my Dad joined in. To me it feels like yesterday.

I am just so glad to know of Gods plan and that this is not the end, that this is just for right now. I know my Dad and Dave will be the pranksters once again. ( In a long time I hope) My Dad couldnt have said it any better than what he did in the comments of the article
"Dave was my younger brother. He could always make me laugh and was our family joker with a witt quicker than Johnney Carson. We are all hurting pretty bad right now. I guess God needed a few laughs and called him home. I miss ya bro. Love, Jeff"
We dont get all the answers but, God doesnt do things without reason, and one day when we meet him, we can ask him all the questions we want to know. For now we just need to pull together as a family, and know that each day is truly a blessing. It could always be better, but remember even when things are bad, at least you are here to learn and grow from the hard times. Until we see him again I know he is watching all of us. Love you always..

Digi Scrapbooking

Ok, so I have been working on this scrapbooking for awhile now, and I have tried paper scrapbooking, there was just to many things I didnt like about it. I am very OCD as everyone knows. So I like my papers to kind of match my pictures, and my stickers and everything else going on, on that page. By the time I would get something I liked with the paper scrapbooking, I was spending $15 a page and I couldn't do that. ( Yes I am picky I know) So Jake showed me how to make my own stuff in photoshop a few years ago. I just love the freedom it gives me. I can make my pages any color, any shapes I like and make things look like stamps, like they are popping out ect. So here are just a few pages I have done.

Now keep in mind we started dating back in 2003, and I didnt know anything bout DPI and alot of our ealy pictures were dropped down to 72 dpi cause I was sharing a computer with the family and my Dad believed that was a high enough dpi. So the pictures are not the greatest but you get the point of them..
I am only to 2006 and have a long way to go, as I got my nikon d40 that year and went crazy taking pictures haha.. If you wanna know how to digi scrapbook let me know :)


Our first picture together. :) Jake has always been my best friend. Love this pic..
(wow my hair was short haha)




Yay our first Christmas break together. I love these pictures. Haha we look so young, but then we were just late teens. Awe




Natalia's baby blessing, this was a great chance for me to use highlights in photoshop and take some great pictures. This set in the scrapbook is simply beautiful. ( I can't wait to get to our wedding to do an other set with these colors and lights)



My lil bug Nick, and his Easter pictures from 2006..



Jake's 21st birthday, this whole set is with theses colors and turned out better than I thought. We had so much fun.



This is Natalias pictures I took in the early fallof 2006, I love this page..



This was Jake and his family in 2006 in Chicago.. I have a long way to go still, but I love scrapbooking this way. No mess, nothing falling off of the pages, I can fit so much more into one book, and I love the clean look and the price is right :)

Whats going on

So, there hasn't really been to much going on. I'm on week 5 recovery and feeling a lot better then I did 2 weeks ago. I cannot wait to get back to being able to being me.
Since I have been stuck down for so long I have started getting ready for yes Halloween ( I know it's July) I'm crazy yes, but I really want fall. I know we don't get the season change just hot, hotter and I've melted. So I may need to take a trip home in a month or so to catch my fav. season ever.
Since I can't wait I had to change my blog to make it a little more fall like :)

Wow, An Anniversary, 2 Birthdays and 2 Surgaries later

So that is what has been going on in our lives lately.. No big plans coming up just trying to recover, and hope to find a good job.








After we got these minor pains out of the was it was time to celebrate Jake 26th Birthday. He worked for some of the day, then we went to dinner at famous Daves, then back to the house for cake and ice cream. I didnt take many pictures as I was still out of commission for the most part. His sister took a few, and I will get them as soon as I can.. But here are a few of Jake sharing ice cream with Mattie..

So after we celebrated my birthday it was time to get ready for a long over do surgery. As some know I have had issues for the last 2 years. we thought it was one thing, went to the Docs they said it was a cyst but to seek a specialist, after seeing him he knew just what it was a Fistula. The only way to get it to go away was to have surgery. I am not going to go in to detail if you want to know you can look it up. I warn you though it's sick.. (not in the its cool, but in the I am going to throw up sick) A week later Jake went to the Dermatologist to have a spot looked at. He had,had this spot for coming up on 5 years, it would bleed, scab and bleed again without ever really going away. It came back as skin cancer. Small as the spot was it had to be treated. It was in office, and they got it with the first removal of the skin layers. He got it all removed and cleared, but the Doc says with him being so young, he is most likely to come across it again in his life. So he had that taken care of at the first part of June. Then my surgery followed on the 17th. It went well, but the recovery is very slow and this has been the first day I've felt well..


2 more cakes.. Icecream and Chocolate.. Yes 3 birthday cakes. YUMMY!!


Jake, me and Mattie at amore's I love their deep dish pizza


COOKIE CAKE



Turning 26, As goes the last few years, there was a hockey tournament. After the game A few friends of ours had got me a cookie cake (I have never had one before) So we went up to the Bar at the rink and shared some, and had a few laughs..
In the picture is Karrie, and Mikie. She is bestest and always has me cracking up


I had so much with this guy, I kept feeding him and he ended up following me back and forth in their pin..




This is from my phone, but he was right over us, you could feel him breath and hear him clear as day.

While we were out there for the hawks we also had time on our hands, so we took a day trip to the wildlife world zoo. I don't know how but I lost some of the pictures. Some of the best pictures. They had a a few white tigers that were roaring and walking right next to the gates. They were so close it seemed as if you could pet them. They have the leopards cage was set up really neat. You walked under this walk way and the cage was on both sides of you with a walkway for them above your head. I had a bunch of pictures of one of them sleeping right over our head. Jake could touch him. (But really would you want to wake that cat up)






My Fav player...



I apologize for not keeping this up to date. We have just had a lot going on the last few months, as you can see from the title. Not to count the little things in between it all.

At the end of March we celebrated our 3 year anniversary. We went out to Phoenix again and saw the Blackhawks beat the Coyotes. It is always better live sitting there in the stands than it is watching them on Tv.

Baby crafts

Steph's first girl, so I would go all out and make a tutu, clips and binky strings. :) I cannot wait to see the new little ones.

bundles of joy

I can not be more excited. My older sister had twins. So not only do get a one, I get two new little ones to spoil. She had one boy and one girl. Her first girl.I am so excited for her and Cory. Congrats..

Wreaths

So since I have not been on facebook, I have been able to do some fun crafts :) Here is one of them. I started to make wreaths. It's cupcake wrappers. I made a couple Easter ones as well :)
I have enjoyed being able to do fun things, and make these.

GOOD BYE

So I will start blogging more, I dont care if it's not as popular as facebook. Yesterday I had things I wanted to do, and thought I would just jump on facebook quick and update my games and get a few more coins.. 3 hours later I looked and saw I lost all my time to these games. I told myself if I put on half a pound I was deleting it. Well I put on a whole pound as I was spending the time on facebook when I should be taking care of myself, and spending time with my husband. So GOODBYE facebook. Sorry to all those who looked for me on it, and used me as neighbors in your games. I wanna stop trying to get a new this or that in my games and get a new life :)

Valentines

So Valentines was great :) Sadly Jake had to work though, So I took the day to make us a nice dinner so we wouldn't have to go out in the crowds. It was so relaxing and just what we needed. We had a nice dinner and cuddled up and watched a movie. Jake spoiled by buying me a new book series of my fav kind. Paranormal stuff.. I just love it. I could not ask for a better husband, bestfriend and partner. :)

It's been awhile, just been busy I guess you can say.

Not a lot new going on yet. I am looking at going to school, and taking a little more time to stay fit. Also like last year, really looking forward to going to a blackhawks game.