Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here's a snapshot of our Christmas Morning......Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures during our extended family Christmas at my brother's house.

Christmas spirits got a little "dampened" with a broken garbage disposal and floor right before opening gifts!

BEFORE

AFTER

RYAN AND THE "STASH"

THIS YEAR'S ORNAMENT

iPHONE ORNAMENT

MY GIFT CARD "COLLECTION"

THIS WAS A "EXTRA" GIFT I GOT MY BROTHER, DAVID

AND INCLUDED THIS GRAPHIC AS THE GIFT TAG

THIS IS RYAN'S ORNAMENT COLLECTION FROM 1995 - 2015! 

A LARGE GLASS BLOCK SNOWMAN I MADE FOR MYSELF

SMALLER GLASS BLOCK SNOWMEN FOR GIFTS

THIS IS HOW I "WRAPPED" RYAN'S TIRES!

IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF THE KRINGL APP - YOU HAVE TO DOWNLOAD IT!

SO FUN - AND LOOKS LIKE SANTA IS RIGHT IN YOUR LIVING ROOM!

HERE'S TO A HAPPY - HEALTHY NEW YEAR!!!!

Winter Break!!

16 glorious days off of work!!!! 

Bill has been receiving Gel Injections in his knee - the surgery he had a few months back didn't completely take care of his problem.  We are praying these injections bring him some relief.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house.  It sure takes A LOT of coaxing to get a family picture!

I always like to make a craft to give as a gift during the holidays.  I saw this on pinterest and thought I'd give it a try.

First you start with a glass block (there is an opening at the bottom with a plug)

You then put Christmas lights into the block

After placing the plug into the hole, I sponge painted the glass on the front, back, sides and top

Added some buttons for the eyes and mouth and painted a orange nose

After outlining the nose and adding white dots to the eyes, I made a hat and scarf out of fleece and hot glued it onto the glass

This picture doesn't show how adorable they look lit up - but it gives you an idea

This year's ornament  - Ryan got his first iPhone and I thought this was the perfect ornament

Speaking of Christmas - once again, I had a problem choosing which Christmas card to order - so we have several different ones................

This month has also brought in more medical bills, as I went for ultrasounds of my heart and legs.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I am retaining water in my legs and they needed to do further testing to rule out any major concerns.  Between the ER visit, doctor visits lab work and scans we stand at over 10,000.00 and I am still having the issues!

I'm still having issues adjusting to the medication!

Off to enjoy my time away from work!!!!!

Latest Projects

Just posting some of my latest creations for school.

 Fall bulletin board headers and some Halloween Gifts

Owls

Squirrels

and What if We Had Animal Teeth

These were plain black gift bags - I punched out the pumpkin faces and placed a bright piece of card stock behind the cut.

in each bag was a box of Minion crayons

 Candy Corn tins filled with chocolate treats and lip balm.

Bags made from scrapbook paper for Carolyn's little ones.

Made with We R Memory Keepers Gift Bag Punch.

Fall Update

Hard to believe it's been almost three months since our new carpet was installed.  

WHAT A TON OF WORK!!!!

BUT WORTH IT!

Here's the living room without any carpet - beautiful, huh?

This is in the middle of installation - I was working (yes I was off all summer and we waited until I returned to work to have this done!)

 And a few hours later - it was all put together!

We asked that they also do Ryan's bedroom on the first day and they were able to do so! 

 IT'S AMAZING HOW MUCH THAT ROOM AND WALK IN CLOSET HOLDS!

The loft bed had to be disassembled, the closet floor took hours to unload!

  

but once again - so worth it!!!

Day two was our bedroom - All the clothes and shoes had to be taken from the closet floors and the waterbed had to be drained and taken apart - and then refilled again

again - WORTH IT!

Then the following month we got a new garage door WITH WINDOWS!

I think it adds so much more to our house!

Last month we celebrated my dad's birthday at one of our favorite family restaurants.

I took advantage of our matching outfits and had Christmas cards made out of our family photo!

Here's my latest Skecher purchases - Always on the look out for new styles!

 Lastly, I've been having some issues with retaining water in my legs.  I drove over to the convenient care one afternoon after school because my doctor was closed and my legs were pretty "large"!

The next thing we knew, I was in the ER at Edward Hospital getting tests on my heart, kidneys, liver, checking for blood clots and chest x-rays!

Thankfully those initial tests came back "normal"!  However, I am going in for more testing this week to rule out anything else that could be "dangerous".  They've placed me on medicine for the water retention, and I'm having a difficult time adjusting to the meds!  

WORSE WEEK OF MY LIFE!  

Hoping to stop by soon with a positive outcome of the tests, as we go into the holidays!