Let's see... my birthday was during the same weekend as National Scrapbook Day, so I got to place an order from Scrapbook Generation for some digital downloads (I was six months behind on getting their monthly downloads), which were on sale during NSD weekend. I got all caught up except for the monthly seasonal/theme bundle packs. I figured I could get those a little at a time later. Plus I placed an order for the two latest sketch books also from Scrapbook Generation - "Sketch Fusion" and "One on One" since they were offering free shipping for the weekend. Little did I know at the time that I had won one of their gift baskets that they were giving away for National Scrapbook Day! Imagine my surprise when this awesome box of Fancy Pants scrapbook goodies showed up on my doorstep on the 17th of May...
I e-mailed Scrapbook Generation right away to tell them thank you. Wow, I certainly wasn't expecting that! I've never had anything from Fancy Pants before, but I am really liking what they sent me. Love the colors in the Park Bench collection, the summer/beach one looks fun and I plan to scrapbook some pictures from my nine year old nephew's birthday where all the guests were wearing mustaches using the Swagger stuff they sent me... including a nice 12x12 collection kit of all the papers, lots of stickers, die-cuts, cardstock tape sticker sheet and corrugated paper.
Also included in my box of Fancy Pants goodies was:
From Swagger (other than what I already mentioned): a nice 4x6 brag pad and felt stickers
From the Park Bench collection: 6x6 paper pad, felt flower stickers and a sheet of the cardstock tape stickers. I am really liking this collection and thinking of getting more of it online. :)
From Happy Together: a package of the trim and one of the "Tags & Titles" which has quite a few journaling spots in it. <3 I will have to check out the rest of this collection online. Love the colors in this one as well.
From To The Moon - a package of the trim (this is a little boy line). Cute stuff.
From Summer Soul - a 6x8 brag book kit that includes pretty papers cut down to size, stickers and 4x6 title and journaling cards.
From Beach Babe - package of the rub-ons
Then some misc. stuff like a 12x12 package of their naked chipboard called "Biggest Board - Mix-n-Match for Creative Chipboard Mini Books." There are three sheets in this package and some of the pieces can be used for a mini album! And you all know how much I love minis. <3
From their Artist Edition line - a package of metal frames and a couple cardstock stencil sets - one is 3x12 and has two sayings/titles. And the other one is 3" x 8" and includes five different designs like polka dots, diagonal lines, chevrons, waves, etc.
Thank you so much, again, Scrapbook Generation for all the wonderful scrapbooking stuff that you sent me! I am now a Fancy Pants fan now that I've seen all this in person. :) And I think National Scrapbook Day has become one of my favorite "holidays" now. lol! Love all the stuff they have going on online on the different websites, sales, challenges, etc. And especially love that it's always around my birthday too. :)
Anyway.......in the meantime, back in May, my husband and I had started walking on one of the local trails for exercise while B. got to ride her bike. It's a nice place to either walk or ride your bike and we really enjoy going there.....
B. had her "Move Up Day" at the local park during the last week of school where she got to meet all the kids from the other elementary schools in the district in her grade. They'll all be going to the brand new middle school that was just built next year. She even made more than several new friends already! The last day of school was on Friday, May 23rd this year. I can't believe my little girl is growing up so fast and is already done with elementary school.*sniff*
Memorial Day weekend, we went up to visit my Mom and I got to visit with my brothers, their wives, and our little twin nephews. We also celebrated my brother, G.'s 36th birthday that day. Michael and Philip are a year old now and walking! Well Philip had been walking for a little while before we saw them on May 25th, but Michael had just started walking about a week before. B. enjoyed helping her little cousin to walk up and down my Mom's long hallway a bazillion times. This little guy has lots of energy! lol!
B. also enjoys playing with her Nana's spoiled rotten dog, Taffy. She's a Maltese/Shih Tzu mix that never usually stands still long enough to let us pet her. lol!
Philip and Michael love dancing to music and had fun throwing a ball outside of their playpen while Aunt Chrissy picked it up and gave it back to them umpteen zillion times. lol!
I always enjoy getting to spend time with them since they live so far away from us.
Then the next day (Sunday, May 26th), my husband, B. and I took the bikes out on the trail. It was the first time my husband and I had ridden a bike since before I had B. My husband seemed to have an easier time on his bike, whereas I felt awkward on mine. The seat, although a gel one, hurt to ride on and my hands and wrists kept hurting or feeling like they were going to fall asleep. I don't remember it being that hard when I was a kid! lol! And I used to ride a bike all the time back then. I would love to be able to ride my bike with my husband but until we can do something about the seat and my hands/wrists, I guess I will stick with working out at the gym or walking while he rides.
I was also on a roll back in May when it came to my scrapbooking and got several more layouts completed from A.'s wedding using some Scrapbook Generation sketches and more papers from the DCWV Lemon Flower & Midnight Chic stacks....
On Friday, May 31st, exactly one week after school let out, our poor sweet girl broke both bones in her lower left arm. :( She was playing over at the neighbors on their blow-up water slide. I watched her come down the slide one time and run back around to do it again. I turned away from the window for not more than five seconds when I heard a scream. It was a scream that scared me because it was a different kind of scream than when B. is sometimes playing. I knew something was wrong and flung the window open and tried to see what was going on through the trees but couldn't see anything. B. came running in the house soaking wet in her bathing suit, holding her left arm screaming and crying. Her lower arm was deformed and it scared the hell out of me. I grabbed my cell phone and tried to call my husband who was working an hour away. He didn't answer so I called 911 from the house phone. I wasn't sure if they could hear me giving our address since B. was crying so loudly in pain. Talk about heart wrenching. My husband had happened to call me back on the cell phone while I was on the phone with 911 and he heard the whole thing. When I got done talking to 911, I told him that B. had broken her arm, that it was bad, and that he needed to come home now. I had enough time to get B. dried off and carefully put her into some dry clothes as quickly as I could. The ambulance came and they put her in a thing to stabilize her arm that was pumped up with air. The paramedics were wonderful. I was, of course, a nervous wreck. Seeing B.'s arm all deformed from breaking it was one of the scariest things for both B. and I....
My husband came home straight away and met us at the hospital. We spent all afternoon and evening in the Special Care Unit of the emergency room. B's arm needed to be reset and they needed to put her to sleep to do that. But since she had just eaten lunch not long before she broke her arm, we had to wait until 8:00 p.m. before they could give her anesthesia to reset her arm. They had to cut off B.'s shirt before taking her to the O.R. And she ended up having the same anesthesiologist that she had when she had her tonsils out a little over a year ago which made us feel a little more at ease. And her orthopedic doctor turned out to be wonderful and I had also heard good things about him from a friend and from a nurse at the hospital who he had done knee surgery on... again putting my mind at ease that she was in good hands.
Poor B. has been in a full-arm cast for the past 3-1/2 weeks now. The doctor says she'll have to be in the cast for 6-8 weeks. We've already been back to see him twice. We're really hoping that either the cast can come off when we go back to him after the 4th of July. Or that B. can at least be put into a water-proof cast at that point. This has put a real damper on her summer since now she can't do much of anything like ride her bike or scooter or go swimming. :( But the important thing is to get her bones healed properly. Be forewarned that those huge blow-up water slides that people buy and put in their yards are extremely dangerous! B. said she came down the slide and bounced out and landed hard on her arm in the grass causing her to break it. She couldn't stop herself because it's very slippery and fast. Those blow up slides are pretty steep. Thank the Lord that she didn't break .... I don't even want to think about it. But, please please keep your children away from those blow up water slides. I wish I knew then what I know now. :(
Other than all that, my husband has started riding his bike regularly throughout the week. He's been at it for not even a month. Like I said, we were walking for a few weeks before he started riding his bike during Memorial Day weekend. Sometimes he goes by himself or with his sister or brother-in-law. He's already lost 11 lbs. so far and I'm really proud of him! Of course, he's gotten himself some of those padded bike shorts that he wears underneath his regular shorts, some padded bike gloves and a helmet. Maybe once B.'s arm heals, I can get myself some bike shorts and gloves and give it another go....
Before I say good night, I leave you with this picture taken on Sunday of a bird's nest with baby birds in it that my husband found while pruning our weeping cherry tree.. If you look closely, you can see their little beaks sticking up out of the nest......
til next time....
