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http://mayaroad.typepad.com/mr/

we are back...

ok, can i just say how awesome my trip to detroit was? truly, it was so much fun hanging out with cass, kate, debbie, laura (and mike, ken and erin). even though the trip was only 48 hours, i enjoyed every moment we spent at paper tales. the store that cass has put together is BEAUTIFUL. i actually found all these interesting papers and embellishments that i had not seen in other stores i had been to before so of course i shopped shopped shopped.





and it is hard for me to not get a smile on my face when i see an 8 ft wall of maya road stuff:

and noah loved the fact that he could roam around the store and check out the play area with erin:

and the students there were so awesome. i am so lucky i got to stop and chat and hang out with each of them:

i even picked up some new UTEE techniques from some of the teachers at paper tales! so cool.

and baby noah and david got to sightsee around detroit with ken and erin as their guides. check out noah and erin here. erin is such a cutie pie!

if you are in the detroit area, you need to head to paper tales. beautiful store. beautiful people. beautiful projects.

i am back at work now. project wise, i am working on a skulls onesie for baby noah. i am not one to fork over $24.99 for a cute designer onesie for noah so i whipped out my drawing pad, some felt and embroidery floss and buttons. i will have to take a photo of the onesie when i am done.

something to think about...

thank you for everyone who posted on my last entry - it made me smile to know that all of you all have something to be thankful for!

i wanted to post this here just in case you want to do something nice for someone. we have donated a bunch of our maya road journey kits and some chipboards to a benefit for jen <-- click here to read about this.

jen isn't someone i know personally but i know her from some of her work as a scrapbooker and her posts on some message boards. her son passed away a little while ago form cancer but even in the darkness, i admired that she had such strength and hope for her child. i don't know if i would have the strength she did if i lost my baby noah and it makes me a bit emotional to think about it.

we usually don't talk a lot about things we donate to as a company but we did donate a number of our things for an auction with 100% of the proceeds benefiting jen's family

you can see the auctions here:

auction for jen

and if you can find it in your heart to bid on them, that would be awesome.

we are off to paper tales tomorrow for me to teach and hang out! 85% packed and 15% more to go! i have 20 planters i have to pack and get on the plane for my class and those things weigh a TON each!

a celebration RAK...

... for 1 healthy year for baby noah and baby jonathan


... for moving almost everything into our new w/h


... for the tremendous growth we have this year


... for God's blessing upon our lives


... for getting back into the running game


... for me getting my @#$@# mouth back under control (most of the time - still working on it)








here is a small RAK i have to give away. lots of pretty ribbons, some items left over from some of my kits from last year. some chipboards. some maya road papers (yes the only ones we have ever made that is in our journey album kit). all in a cool storage box.

i have a couple more things not in the photos - some cool stamps and labels and such.

if you want to win this, please do the following:

1. post here

2. tell me what you have to celebrate today

RAK entries close on monday! so good luck!

one small peek at the w/h

ok, here are 2 small peeks at the w/h. not everything is put away yet but it is looking very sweet. there is a photo of where we store the goodies:

(i wouldn't advise diving into this b/c it would HURT like the dickens).

and here is where we do the pick and pack and ship:

and remember this, just a couple of years ago, deb and i were packing orders out of our garages! even when i was 4 months pregnant, i was packing orders out of my garage. trust me, this wouldn't fit in our garages now - LOL.

so for that, thank you for your support of us. it means a lot. and we have lots more goodies planned!

you've come a long way baby.

wow, talk about a trip down memory lane. i found this photo from over 10 years ago (back in my raver-ish days) and rather than banish it back to a pile in my desk i decided to scrap it. you can't see very well the photos but i did have a fire engine red streak of hair. this was after a late rave night of staying up til 4am then heading to class at 8 am. the boy in the photo is jeff. he was my best friend in college. jeff sat behind me in high school psychology class and that is how we met. we went to the prom together and suffered through 4 years of college together. we even did our last chemical engineering project together in school.

i can look back at this photo with such fond memories. jeff and i will reconnect once in a while and catch up. there was a point where we drifted apart. it bothered me so much. but now i realize we had to do that. i was moving on in my life and so was he but we were going in different directions.

things are different now. we don't talk and see each other daily like we used to but we are at points in our lives where the conversation, even after a long pause gets easy again. i hope to bring baby noah to meet jeff and his partner very soon. we talk about mortgages, bills, food and getting older (LOL).

but i wouldn't have traded the past me for anything b/c it made me who i am now. and i am so happy to see where jeff is now in his life!

so if you find some photos lying around in a drawer, don't leave them there! do a LO about it! it will look so much better sitting on a page rather than left back in the drawer to be forgotten.

it was 2 years ago...

so it was over 2 years ago that i created this album. i just found these photos the other day as i was flipping through picasa at my stuff. who would have known transparencies would be so "in" 2 years later (LOL)

i still love these pages where i stamped and used rubons to create divider pages. in fact, for a class i am teaching this weekend, we will be sorta doing the same stuff but with some different supplies.

and you can see that i had created this album freehand and it was sort of the inspiration for some of our most popular albums to date!

it is time for me to "update" this album. i am going to be making one with some new photos of our home now that mr. noah has joined our family. lots more toys. a bit more messes but a whole lot more love!

we are off to swim lessons tonight with noah. swim trunks? check. swim diapers? check. towels. check. i think we are good to go!

in the meantime our new w/h looks so AWESOME! double the packing space.triple the storage. more than 4 docks for loading and unloading. and even toys for baby noah when he pops in for a visit! i should take some photos this week.

"you run fast for someone with flat feet"

someone told me that once. i guess us flat fat feeters are supposed to go SLOW... just a quick note before i head off to B&N and then later tonight work on my summer CHA projects (with our new samples - and they kick butt let me tell you).

i got up at 6 am today and did my 6 mile run in a little over 54 minutes. so i am getting faster and i can't wait for the half marathon.

no i won't back down...

well i did it, i signed up for the half marathon in september. after forking over my 75 buckaroos, there is no turning back now. i had to do this to make sure i was serious about my training. i have only 3.5 months til i have to run this 13.1 mile distance.

if you are into racing, you will know what this all means to me. i don't get nervous about lots of things but i get knots in my stomach before races like this. i get antsy and pissy. i want to just get started the day of the race.

sometimes people will ask me "well how long is this marathon" - and well i get taken aback b/c the length of a marathon never changes - it is always 26.2 miles. and the half is always 13.1 miles. you might not thing that 0.1 or 0.2 miles matters but it does especially if you are at the point when your body is about to give out. i have come close to passing out the last 0.1 miles.

but i am doing this for me. so that i can get back into some sort of shape. i miss the days i would go run 22 miles, shower, then play flag football for 2 hours and soccer for 1.5 hours the next day. those days are long behind me.

but during my runs, i have to be extra careful b/c of this:

i found this photo the other day while cleaning out a drawer. this was from 9 years ago (Feb to be exact) when i played a fateful soccer game and tore a bunch of ligaments in my ankle - was out of work and on crutches.

if i only knew then what i know now. my ankle haunts me. i was thinking about this the other day. i will never be 100% on that ankle. and i probably won't be even 80% ever. i think about my ankle each time i run b/c i have the tendency to twist my ankle if i don't watch how i land.

don't get me wrong, i have run my fastest times ever even with this ankle but i know and have been told that one day i might need to get that puppy fixed. i am cool with that. there is no need for me to live in fear. i am not one to live in fear. so til that day comes, i will make do with what i have. life is too short to sweat it.

and with that my goal for is set. i will get up that day. i will get antsy. i will be wearing my funny looking running shorts that have all the pockets in the butt side and they will be filled with runner's energy packs. and with God's grace, i will run my half marathon in a really slow time. and baby noah and david will be cheering me on. then i will finish and we will celebrate by going to the beach.