Happy New Year's!

So I am not one for resolutions, but this year I am going to try and be a better blogger. Actually I want to start making my blog be like my daily journal. When I was much younger I kept a journal, actually I used it as a devotional too. I would write different scripture verses in it that I would read and like to remember. I use to also write 5 things daily that I was thankful for, I remember at first it was the general things like family, friends, etc. But as time passed I would put things like being sick or that I was thankful for bad times...I guess I was thankful that God had shown me these "blessings" to teach me and show me. So I remember really feeling so together in my thoughts when I wrote in the journal on a regular basis. So for the first time in over 15 years, maybe longer I am going to do it again.

Today I am thankful for:

A short day at work

A handy husband(he helped me hang a vinyl verse on the wall that I could not get straight)

Great children

A day of rest

A job-the past 2 years have really been so interesting for my hubby and myself with our job situation.

I am especially grateful that I have a senior in High School-can't wait for her to experience the next chapter in her life!

Enjoy your evening as we ring in the New Year!

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to wish all my blog friends a Merry Christmas! Hope you had a wonderful, joy filled day! And Santa was good to you!

My life is like a freight train!

So we are halfway through the month of December and I have only managed to get one lousy post done! It is such a shame that I don't have more to say cause my life is so busy!!! I think that is the problem, too much going on and not enough down time to write anything! We enjoyed our trip to Disney World the first week of the month and since coming back I have been battling a cold that would not leave! So after 9 days I went to the Dr. to find out it is the flu and a sinus infection. I have spent the last several days in bed...today I finally feel that my head isn't spinning and I can actually appear human again!

I did manage to make a little gift last week for my monthly card swap group. I am really proud of how it turned out, now I just want to find more time to make another one! Here is a photo.

In other news I haven't even started my Christmas shopping and we are only 1 week away from the big day! I don't know where the time went but I gotta get myself organized and feeling better so I can get some presents under the tree! My kids are going to start thinking there really is no Santa!!! OF course they know that this year we are trying to be a little frugal so it won't be as big of a Christmas as they have had in the past, that is ok though cause we are together and Dan has got a new job! That is the best news we have had all year!!! He started last week and seems to really like it, lots to do in a growing company. We are just so thankful, our prayers were answered.

Whirlwind week!

This week is proving to be super busy! I am working only 2 days this week and then we leave to go to Disney World! We are so excited the High School Chorus is singing the Candlelight Processional in Epcot and we are going down to see them perform, plus enjoy a couple of days at the parks! We so need this little min vacation. Should have tons of photos when I get home to scrapbook.

In other news my husband found a job! We are so thrilled about this opportunity. His commute will be a little longer than it is now, his job is in Kennesaw! We are just so happy that Dan has got a job. He starts mid December, so keep us in your prayers! This will be a new adventure!

Gotta get to work, I am hoping to get some more time to blog this week. I have lots of new stuff to share but no time to upload photos!

Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving! I will be spending the morning cooking and then enjoy my husband's family for the afternoon. Here are a few photos from last year's Thanksgiving to share!

Special Day

So I am a month behind posting these cards that I made for my last month's card group. Better late than never! Guess I was saving them for a special day!

I do have a pretty good excuse as to why I never shared these cards and that is because our network computer crashed, the one that stores all our photos and so I have not been able to access the photos for about a week now. Everytime I would try to upload them it would just sit for hours trying to process. We have now changed how our photos get saved in hopes that it won't happen again, of course we had to spend about $650 to do it, plus we now need another something that will cost $300, so we just bought a new computer in my opinion!

I have lots of new things to share, been really crafty lately! My hand is almost back to normal so I am finding it much easier to do things...the only thing that is still hard is scrubbing movement. No kidding, so dishes, cleaning or anything needed to be scrubbed is a challenge! Of course no one else in the family wants to scrub either! Wish I could use the excuse all the time that my hand just won't do that movement!!! HA HA! Unfortunately it would only hurt me since I am the only one that cleans around the house, actually Miranda will do it when I ask, but not very often. So today I got to get myself motivated to do some housework! So exciting!

Back at work!

So I am officially back at work, today marks my 5th day back. I am doing well, there are still some things that are proving to be difficult, but with every passing day things are getting easier and easier. One of those hard things is washing dishes, or shampooing hair...not that I really want to get back to the dishes, but they are not going to wash themselves! So my physical therapy sessions are packed with exercises that work on stretching my hand and fingers out so that I have the strength to scrub those dishes and at work other people's head! I feel that in just a short couple of weeks I will be well on my way!Been crafting a lot...wanted to share some of my latest projects. Just a few of my daughter, trying to finish up her cheerleading pages...since this is her last year I wanted to get the pictures in a book. We didn't want the 10 years of cheerleading to be forgotten, so finally I am done, just waiting on the date for the basketball shots and then we can say the book is finished! Such a great feeling of accomplishment...my daughter having stuck with this sport for so long. She loves it and is so passionate about cheering! Makes me so proud!

She's a Senior!

Our baby is growing up! I can't believe that she is a senior and will be graduating from High School in just 6 months. Where has the time gone? I remember bringing her home from the hospital when she was first born, dressing her up in frilly dresses, and playing barbie's with her.

She has grown into a beautiful, smart, fun young lady and I am so very proud of all of her accomplishments. My husband and I had the honor of walking her across the field last Friday night for Senior Night. This is what they said about her:

Miranda Goswick

Escorted by (name and relationship to you): By her parents-Monica and Dan Goswick

While attending Duluth High School Miranda has participated in these organizations:

Cheerleading for football and basketball all four years of high school

Beta Club sophomore year

Chorus all four years

TSA for senior year

Member of the Peer Leadership Program

Miranda has received the special awards while attending Duluth High School:

Cheerleading captain for Varsity Football-2 years

Chorus officer for 2 years

Highest GPA cheerleading-Junior year

Coaches Award for cheerleading-Junior year

Coaches Award for cheerleading-Sophomore year

Spirit Award for cheerleading-Freshman year

Merit Award for Chorus-Junior year

Lettered in cheerleading for 3 years

Lettered in academics and chorus all four years of high school

Girl Scout Gold Award Recipient

Miranda plans on attending Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, GA, to major in Engineering.

Miranda's best memory at Duluth High School is cheering at Friday night football games, spending time with all her friends and getting to know new friends through her high school years.

This night is such a special night to honor all that the athletes have done over the years! We are so proud of Miranda! Our special girl!

Happy Halloween

It was a great Halloween for me this year! I was home and really got to enjoy being with my family. Although I did not get to decorate my home like I normally do, we still had a great day! Miranda woke up insisting that we make costumes for her group of friends. They had a Halloween party to attend and wanted to do a group costume, so after fixing a big breakfast we headed out to the fabric store...took about an hour to find all the fabric and stuff we needed...got back to the house around 2pm and starting sewing like crazy! Made 4 costumes in about 5 hours...here they are! They turned out to be so cute!

My son decided to be the Joker from Batman this year. We bought his costume because we thought it might be better in case I didn't have the time to sew. I did do his makeup and it turned out really well, especially since I don't have much experience with scary faces! When he looked at himself in the mirror he was so excited that finally he dressed up as a scary character!

Glad that the holiday is over, wish I could have enjoyed it more...life has been a little overwhelming lately...I have decided to change things in my life, simplify it. I am stepping down from some of my volunteer duties...I just can't keep juggling it all and remain a good wife, mother, friend, employee, and over all normal person! More details to come about which volunteer job I will be letting go.

Homecoming

Hello! I wanted to share some photos that we took last weekend for homecoming. I have been so busy this week with pt and just getting back to the normal everyday life that I haven't even thought about updating my blog. Guess even though I say I am going to get better about blogging, really it is the last thing on my list and if I happen to get some extra time to blog then I will, if not then it is neglected. Sad, but true!Last weekend we had unseasonably cold weather for our area where we live, like 38 for the low and 50 for the high...maybe even mid 40's. It was homecoming for my daughter's high school. We went to the game Friday night and sat out in the cold. It was really hard on my still healing hand, apparently it does not like cold weather! Go figure! We managed to make it through and enjoy our game and our loss. As much as you can enjoy losing! So Saturday night was the dance for the school, we spent the day getting ready...

went and got our nails done, had lunch, went to a few stores to get last minute items, lotions, undergarments, gel shoe inserts for the insanely high heals Miranda insisted on wearing! Came home by 2pm and proceeded to get ready, I even did a little fluffing of the hair, good practice for my healing hand! We then had to go outside i n the freezing weather and take photos, too bad you can't tell in the photos that their teeth were chattering! This is Miranda's last homecoming, I am so excited for her to be a senior, it is just such a big milestone in life. Most parents are sad, but not me I know that there are bigger and better things to come for her! She will be so much more than what she was in high school, it is just such a small part of her life...of course you can't tell her that now, IT IS HER LIFE! Anyway here are a few of the photos from that evening.

The following photos are my daughter and her bestie, Amanda. They have been friends since kindergarten, they were in Girl Scouts together, she goes on family vacations with us, she babysits for us...she is like our second daughter. I will miss her as much as my own daughter next year when they go to college.

In my sparetime, I made the corsages for the girls and the guys. I use to work in a florist so I learned a thing or 2 about flowers...I have to say it was really challenging not having full strength in my hand yet to make these, but it was only for a night and the girls seemed happy!

I'm back

I know it has been about a month since I last blogged, but again I will use the excuse that I was busy!!! Actually I was busy for about 2 weeks then I had hand surgery so for the last 2 1/2 weeks i have been hanging around recuperating. I had big plans that I would blog everyday, but that didn't happen, instead I watched hours of Law and Order. Love that show, I had no idea it came on tv 4 hours everyday. I am not one to watch much tv but this time I just couldn't stop!!!

Anyway before my surgery I managed to cut some pieces for a card and have just found the time to put it together, plus it is great physical therapy for me to work on my fine motor skills, all the gluing and taping. It's nothing fancy but I am so in love with the fall colors, my favorite time of year!

This next picture is prove of my surgery and cast that I wore for 2 weeks. I am so glad that I am past this stage. This is not the most flattering photo, my hubby caught me mid sentence while I was holding his soda so that he could take a picture, I just didn't know it was going to be a picture of me!!!

I promise to get better at blogging! I just don't have enough to say on a daily basis to post and really I let all the other stuff get in the way!

Time flies!

I cannot believe it is already September, boy does time just seem to fly by!!! Can't tell you what I have been doing lately as we are so busy I can hardly remember one day to the next! Think I need to take some time and slow down! Of course that is coming really soon as I am scheduled for hand surgery at the end of the month! I have been having problems with my hand/fingers for a while (like the past 5 years) and finally the pain has gotten so bad that I went to the dr. Well they found a mass on the base of my ring finger, attached to my tendon sheath...it feels like a small rock in my hand! So the plan is to have surgery to remove it...it is my left hand and of course I am left handed so this will pose a bit of trouble during the recovery. I will be out of work for several weeks, all of October to be exact!!! Yikes! Hopefully though I will go back and be feeling so much better! anyway there will be no crafty fun from me for a while! So I should share some of the last few things I have been doing over the past month or so...

It's been a long week, so glad for the weekend!

I feel like this week has been like an entire year! I didn't get a single day off, not that I am complaining but really my regular days off were spent at a meeting or class for work! Finally tomorrow I get my first real day off in over 2 weeks, think I might stay in my pajamas all day!

Here are my last few layouts I have done over the past several weeks...haven't done anything new lately, just not feeling the creative juices flowing, hoping that tonight that will change since a friend is coming over to make cards.

I am going to see the hand doctor on Monday to final get my MRI read and surgery for my hand scheduled, don't know if I shared with my blog friends but I have a cyst on the palm of my hand at the base of my ring finger, it has been causing me discomfort and pain for a long time, so finally I had it checked out and the result is surgery. I am not so happy about the surgery because I will be out of work for several weeks, but I am hoping good results from the surgery! That is why I need to get myself motivated to get crafty while I can!!! After surgery I will be out of commission for at least 3 weeks!~ Yikes!

In other news fall football season has started for the high school, this is my daughters last year! I am so glad to say I will be going to my last football games ever! Ok, I know I have a son but his interest is not in sports so don't think we will be going to many games during his high school days! Needless to say our team did not win our first game, we came close...in overtime the score was 28 to 21. I did come home with my allergies bothering me and a hoarse voice, woke up today feeling pretty yucky, worked all day and still feeling pretty yucky, took lots of allergy meds hoping for the best!

Going to rest for a while, then off to dinner with the family, then maybe some craft time!!!

Can you believe it

I know this is hard to believe but I am posting again, several times in one week is amazing for me! I just have so many new things to share and wanted to get it all posted so I don't forget! Of course when I post on a daily basis not much is going on and I don't have a lot to share. I worked yesterday, we are hitting are slow time so I didn't have much to do, which is good for me but not so good for the wallet! Oh well!Here are a few more of my latest creations to share:

As promised I am posting more of my latest projects. I feel that I am going to be super busy over the next few days, not sure why just have a lot to get done for cheerleading and chorus...it is the beginning of the school year and everyone seems to have the buzz. Anyway this post is short and sweet but you get the point I am just showing off my latest!

Sorry I don't have time for more chit chat, but life is happening and as always I am to steps behind!