Olivia's New Look

Olivia's new glasses finally arrived. Not sure if you can tell a difference but she did get two different pairs.

Card Challenge #3

I had some quiet time this afternoon and I had so much fun making this card. My son had his last basketball game yesterday and finally made his first basket. We were all so proud of him and I wanted to make him a special congratulations card. It was great being able to make him a card and use it for this weeks challenge! Just in case it doesn't show up clearly the middle section says What a Sport!

Card Challenge Week #2

Here's my card for this weeks challenge. I had a lot of fun with it!!

Card Challenge #1

OK, so Dianne and Marnie convinced me to participate in the weekly challenge at linnecards.com so here's my card!!

Ta Da

Here's what the new bedroom looks like it. We still have a few little things to do but at least all the furniture (some new) is in the room.

This Week's Layouts

Here's a couple of layouts I started at Marnie's on Wednesday and finished up at home yesterday.

Hope everyone is staying warm!

A Few More Layouts

Here's a few layouts I did last Wednesday in addition to the two I made for Marnie's Wellies challenge. The challenge layouts are posted on the Schnockered Scrapper blog. The one on the left is a picture of the kids with their Great Grandma Beckert. I always make sure to get pictures of them with her every time we visit. I'm thinking next time I should get a picture of her and I since I don't have any recent pictures of us together!!

Hockey Player or Jack-o-Lantern

So what do you think?? I said Seth looks like a Jack-o-Lantern and Marc says he looks like a hockey player. Either way he's still the cutest boy I know!! He was very excited to have lost another tooth. He was a little disappointed that he didn't loose it at school as he really wants to bring a tooth home in one of those cute little tooth holders. Oh well maybe next time!

Have fun digging out of this wonderful snow, UGH!!

Todays Quote

OK, so today's calendar quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson and it says "Men are what their mothers made them." Let me just say that for certain men that I know it explains alot.

I've already received and sent out the first 2009 e-mail entitled "Getting to Know Your Friends". Usually when it asks what my favorite day of the week is I say Friday, as that's usually wind down from the week. But after further thought (and reading Dianne's answer) I wonder why I don't put Wednesday. That is the one night a week (most weeks anyway) that I get to call mine. I get to go hang out with my good friends and scrap. And I am so looking forward to going tonight. Seems like it's been forever and technically it was last year since I've been. I have so many ideas and layouts I want to work and hopefully I'll accomplish something. There's also going to be a weekly challenge which I LOVE the idea of. That certainly motivates me and usually gets me going in a direction I may not of thought of on my own.!

Hope everyone else enjoys their Wednesday!

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peak of the new color in the bedroom. I'm loving it!! Can't wait to put the room together. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Good Morning

This is the quote of the day from my new calendar...."Sing out loud in the car even, or especially, if it embarasses your children". I LOVE this one and I do it as often as I can.

Our bedroom is in total disarray. It's finally getting the well-deserved makeover it needs. It's been primed and tomorrow the new color goes on!! After that time for the new flooring. I'm hoping to get to Kohl's over the weekend to get some new pillows and maybe even some new bedding. I'll take pictures to post when it's all completed.

I've been up since 8:00am this morning. All the kids are still sleeping and I have gotten so much accomplished! I've been writing a letter to Matthew since Christmas day and I finished that up to get in the mail. One of my resolutions was to send him a weekly letter. So far I'm off to a great start!! LOL...we'll see how long it lasts.

Melody and Hawk are coming over this morning. We were supposed to have a scrap/play date before Christmas but Seth got sick and we had to cancel. So far it looks like a go for today. I'm hoping to scrap my Christmas cards/pictures from last year and maybe this year too if I have time.

Well it's time to end the silent solitude. Better get the kids up so they can get breakfast before company arrives. Hope everyone has a great day!!

Happy New Year Everyone

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Year!! Here's some Christmas photos of each of the kids. Last pictures of 2008!!

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Merry Christmas Everyone

Wow, I'm such a terrible blogger. I haven't updated this since school started and I think last year my resolution was to be a better blogger. Guess that better be my resolution again this year and hope it works out better.

Here's what's going on with us! The kids all went back to school the end of August. I got a job working at Field Elementary as a playground supervisor during the lunch hour. I'm loving it!! Those kids crack me up and it's pretty decent money for only 5 hours of work a week.

Seth is now 7 and in 1st grade. He loves going to school and is doing very well! He joined a basketball group and starts practice after the 1st of the year.

Olivia is 9 and in 4th grade and just starting taking the viola. So far she enjoys it so we'll see how that goes. She's still in Girl Scouts too.

Katie is 12 going on 20. She's very into makeup and she loves the Twilight series. She's even got me reading them. She's still playing the oboe and joined our church's puppet team. She'll start confirmation classes after the 1st of the year.

Suzanne is 16 and a Junior in high school. So far she's doing pretty good in school and she's trying to figure out what her future career aspirations are. Certainly not an easy decision at 16.

All the kids are looking forward to Christmas and seeing what Santa is bringing them. I'm hoping they'll be happy with everything they receive.

Here's wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year!!

Silence is Golden!!!

Wow, it's so quiet hear. Stephen took the kids to Chuckie Cheese for lunch and I'm getting a taste of what my days will be like when school starts. Gotta say I'm looking forward to it!

What a week we had last week. We drove down to my Mom's on Monday, spent the afternoon swimming and had a little BBQ. Then we we all left to head back to Bill & Heather's none of the kids wanted to go in their car with them. Well it turned out that it worked out for the best as Bill hit a cow on the way home. Luckily we were about 5 minutes behind them as both their cell phones were dead and they had to use mine. They were so lucky as there wasn't a lot of damage to their car. Just the hood basically. We all said that it was a good thing that it wasn't us that hit him as there probably would have been a lot more damage to our van.

OK, so Tuesday we spent the afternoon swimming and then headed for the Bond County Fair. We got there about 5:30, scoped out our spots for the parade and took the kids to the midway. They were able to ride some rides and then we all got something to eat and sat down to watch the parade. Let me just say it was 98 degrees but felt more like 110. Well just after the parade started Heather turned to me and said "that's the weather siren going off". But, no one was moving or even paying attention as the fire engines and police cars were going by with their sirens on. I think we kind of assumed that the police or firemen would let us know if there was a problem. We were wrong!! A few minutes later the sky looked very ominous and I thought for sure we were going to be right in the middle of a tornado. Needless to say my girls were freaking out, as girls will do. We took shelter under the cow barn which basically just had a roof over it. After about 5 or 10 minutes a police officer came and told us that two tornados had been spotted and power lines and trees were down all ovre town. He directed us to the grandstands or any buildling with a concrete foundation. Off we went to the nearest building and got drenched in the process. We stayed their for about an hour while the storm blew over and then headed back to Bill & Heather's. Now my children will probably never want to go to a county fair again.

Wednesday morning it was off to St. Louis to go to the arch. Everything went well until we tried getting Seth in the little pod elevator that takes you up. He was screaming and crying and holding on to the stair railing for dear life. Marc physically pried him off and threw him in the elevator. He freaked...kept screaming "where's the buckle" and kept his eyes closed the entire way up while saying "don't touch me, nobody touch me". Once we arrived at the top he kept walking down the center of the aisle with his arms out for balance and continued to say "don't touch me, nobody touch me". Luckily after a few minutes he got braver and started looking out the windows. According to him it was the best part of our vacation. After that we made a quick stop at the Soldier Museum and then headed to Ted Drewes for their famous frozen custard. Then we met Bill, Heather and the girls at The Magic House which is really a huge children's museum where we spent almost 3 hours. The kids had a blast and so did the adults. Then we all headed back to Bill & Heathers for pizza and an evening of Guitar Hero.

Thursday we headed home and Friday I spent the day doing laundry and packing to go to Mike's house for the weekend. It was the last time we'll probably go to Kalamazoo since he starts his new job in North Dakota on the 18th. Saturday we had an uneventful ride to Kalamazoo and then that afternoon we headed to Ribfest. The ride home on Sunday was long and we thought it would never end. We left K-zoo at about 1:00pm our time and didn't get home until almost 6 as their was road construction and traffic. We decided to take the Skyway since according to the radio station it was clear. Well that was true until we got to Comisky Park and the White Sox game had just let out. Then we got caught in that traffice. Whew!

This weekend we are all headed in different directions. I'm going back to my Mom's on the 14th to spend a long weekend helping her clean, organize and go through everything. The girls are going to be with their Dad. Suzanne is still with her Mom. And, Seth and Marc are headed to Fulton to see the Peoria Chiefs play the Clinton Lumberkings on Saturday night. Ryne Sandburg is the manager for the Peoria Chiefs and they are hoping to get his autograph. We'll all return on the 17th and then we are done with our travels for awhile as school starts on the 26th.

Well I'll close for now as I've been quite long winded, as usual!

She Did It!!

Well, Suzanne and I just got home from the Hair Cuttery. This is what she looks like now that she's donated the majority of her hair to Locks of Love. It's called an Alien cut as it's shorter in the back and longer on the sides. I think it's adorable and I think she likes it too!

I'm an Idiot

It's Register's Annual Great Bicycle Race across IOWA not America. Of course my brother went to the blog and now I'm sure he thinks I'm an idiot.....wait he probably already did. Oh well!

RAGBRAI

Caption next to photo in Iowa City Press-Citzen Newspaper read:

William Beckert, of Greenville, Ill., holds his bike over his head after dipping it in the Mississippi River on Saturday in Le Claire after completing the final leg of RAGBRAI.

For those of you unfamiliar RAGBRAI stands for Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across America and this year was the 36th annual. My brother Bill rode in it for the first time and had a blast. I followed along everyday by logging on the Des Moines Register and viewing photos, maps of the route, etc.

Anyone interested in reading the article that accompanied the above picture can do so by visting http://www.press-citizen.com/ then in the search field type RAGBRAI and the name of the article was Bidding RAGBRAI Adieu, dated July 27, 2008. Or try this link which I think will take you right to it

http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807270317

Later

Let's see what's been going on here...

Friday was Stamp Camp at Marnies and we made some wonderful cards. Saturday I spent most of the day in the basement scrapping and did these two layouts plus some more pages for the tribute album I started for my Dad. Sunday I signed up for IM on Myspace and I've been chatting with Matthew on it daily since then. It's great as they are 8 hours ahead so he logs on about lunchtime here and it's 8:30 or so over there. He said it's really hot, sandy and boring over there. He keeps adding all kinds of things he'd like us to send to him so I keep trying to keep everyone updated. I've already sent one box but he still hasn't received it. I've got another box I'm filling and will probably send in another week or so.

VBS was cancelled so we've decided to go out of town for a few days and see my family. We are leaving on Monday, August 4th and it just happens to be the week of the Bond County Fair so we are going to go to that. I don't think the kids have ever been to one so hopefully they'll enjoy it. We are also going to take them to the St. Louis Arch. Marc and Katie have been up to the top in the last few years. I haven't been up in it since I was a little girl so I'm looking forward to it. We'll come back home on the 7th and then on the 9th we are leaving to go to Kalamazoo for a quick weekend trip. Marc's brother took a job in North Dakota so this will probably be our last trip there. It happens to be Ribfest that weekend so you can guess what we'll be having for supper on Saturday.

We'll I've got more plans for August but I'll save those for another post in a week or so. Hope every one is well!

So Sorry....

It's been a long time since my last post so I'll try and summarize the last few months...

After a long battle with diabetes and heart problems, my Dad passed away on May 5th so needless to say that pretty much took the wind out of me for a few months. Life does go on and it is getting better everyday. Needless to say I worry about my Mom and am trying to help her out whenever I can. She seems to be doing pretty good however I think the end of the month will be rough as it would have been my Dad's birthday on the 31st of this month.

Matthew came home the weekend of Mother's Day and was here for two weeks. We threw a big BBQ on Memorial Day weekend and invited all his family and friends to come visit him. He shipped out to Kuwait on June 16th. He calls about once every 10 days or so and is doing well. He says it's like being at the beach except there is no water and no pretty girls sunbathing!

School ended the beginning of June and Seth graduated Kindergarten and received a "Wonderful Singer" award from his teacher. He's very excited about the prospect of going to school all day in the fall. Olivia would never go back if I'd let her and Katie is excited about going back as well. Although I do think it's because she wants to see all her friends and not because she can't wait to get back to learning.

Suzanne made the "B" honor roll the second semester and we are all very proud of her. We chipped in some money to help her by an MP3 player that she'd been wanting. She started working as a day camp counselor at the Prospect Heights Park District on the 16th of June and her last day is July 25th. She only works from 8:30 to 12:30 but she seems to enjoy it and I know she's looking forward to getting her paycheck.

Marc, Katie, Olivia, Seth and I went to visit my Mom and brothers the weekend of June 20th and also celebrated my niece Haley's 3rd birthday. The intent was to help my Mom go through some of my Dad's things. We did go through a few things but we really spent most of the weekend swimming and fishing with the kids. We had a great time!

I turned the big "45" last week and on Tuesday my Mom and my niece Chloe showed up on our doorstep to surprise me. They stayed until Friday morning and we all had a great time. The kids were happy to be able to spend time with Chloe and Mom and I were able to go shopping for scrapbooking supplies and spend time together. On Wednesday we went to Marnie's to scrap and all my WONDERFUL friends surprised me and took me to Claim Jumper's for dinner. I'd never been there and the food was really good. While Mom and I were out Marc baked me a cake and hid all the evidence until the next day when I woke up and found a dozen roses on the breakfast counter along with a card and a note that said check the oven. After a wonderful birthday meal of spaghetti I had more wonderful gifts to open and we ate the cake which was delicious. Then on Saturday Marc surprised me again by telling me we were dropping the kids at Marnie's and going out to dinner alone. We went to Red Lobster which is one of our favorite places and had a nice dinner.

Whew! I think that's the highlights from the last several months and hopefully I can get make to trying to post on a weekly basis. Have a great weekend everyone and stay COOL!