Vote for me? Please?

Penscrappers.com has a contest with a chance to win prizes, and it looks like one of the possible prizes is a Wacom tablet. I would LOVE one of those, so I jumped right in! I hope you like my page and will vote for it!

~Melinda

An angel on Earth, is now an angel in Heaven ...

Little Layla Grace passed away this morning. As much as we all who were following her story knew it was coming, it is still a terribly sad day. It is riddled with the battling of praises that she is no longer in pain and fighting such a horrible disease, against the simple sadness that she is no longer here for her parents, family and friends to see what she would become.

I made this page for an ADSR (Amazing Digi-Scrap Race) challenge just a few short days ago:

(Credits are in my gallery at Gotta Pixel)

I knew her days were numbered when I made it, but I along with thousands of people wanted to spread her story and show support in some small way, in what feels like a very helpless situation. People are working toward a cure right now, somewhere. I only can hope and pray that it comes soon ...

Hugs,

In like a lion???

Nah - no lions! So far March is starting out beautifully in the weather department. We're supposed to be in the 30's this week, and I didn't see any forecasts for snow. It's light out when I leave work now, and as I'm sure others agree ... that is SO nice. It was so depressing leaving work and feeling like it was time to go to bed already!

I just read that the 2 am to 6 am winter parking restrictions have been lifted in the residential areas, and that makes me glad because I just parked my car in some very slushy stuff in my yard and was not looking forward to a month of that!

Tonight I took the kids to McDonald's because I'm mentally exhausted. We started using a new program at work today, and I just could not stand the idea of having one more thing to think about tonight. So then I came home and decided to blog. LOL Does anyone else find the humor in that??! Or am I really that exhausted, lol.

We're moving! Well, sort of ... we are purchasing bunk beds from my aunt and uncle, and so we're switching bedrooms around for all of us! I am hoping we'll start making the moves next weekend already. There is some painting to do, so for a short while the 3 kids will be in one room, but I'm confident that it won't be too big of a problem. The plan has been for Julia to have the "nursery" for a long time now, and that plan will continue. Our "old" plan was to have Blake and Chase share the room upstairs, but that plan has changed with the bunk beds due to our 1 and 1/2 story house.

We are going to move upstairs! I'm actually pretty excited about this move for a few reasons. The room upstairs is large, and I think it will be nice for us to have more space. (I can see me moving the ironing board upstairs too, which will help me organize the main floor a little better too.) With twin bunk-beds in our old room, there will still be plenty of floor space for Blake and Chase. I think we'd have room for a desk in there if we needed it, and eventually I can see that happening. It should be easier to get the kids to sleep at night because I will be on the same floor to manage them, also.

So, it's pretty exciting for us. I've already bought some primer paint and a test sample of the pink paint to try out in Julia's new room! Just went to try it out ... gosh, it's light. I told my husband it was too light when we were in the store ... and that is directly on top of the blue paint instead of on top of primer ... so I bet it's even lighter then! Guess I'll have to try another color or ask them to darken it with more red or something. Why can't the colors just match the test papers like they're supposed to? LOL!

Anyway, enough rambling. It's taken me a couple hours between doing other things to create this post. I don't know how MckMama puts together such coherent blog posts! LOL!

Just was in the bathroom with Julia and discovered she's cut her hair again ... her bangs, RIGHT in the front. *sigh* What possesses kids to do this?!!! I don't ever remember doing this! It's hair ... it will grow. It's hair ... it will grow.

My last Gotta Pixel Site CT pages ...

I've shared this elsewhere, but haven't posted it in forums or on my blog, really, yet. I made the extremely hard decision to leave the Gotta Pixel Site CT at the end of February. The term was up, and we had the option of continuing on the team, or not. I'd been debating about it for a few weeks now, so the timing was meant to be when I got the email about the new 6 month term.

Spring is coming, and my schedule is going to be getting busier and busier. I decided it was better to reduce my commitments, and let someone else have a chance to be a part of the team.

So, these are my last four pages to share as a part of the Gotta Pixel Site CT! Maybe I'll have the pleasure of joining the team again some day. I will miss being such a close part of the GP team. It's a great site.

First up ... with a beautiful collaboration kit by Captivated Visions and Connie Prince. The kit is called Forever and it inspired me to scrap about my wedding for, almost the first time.



Then I used this kit to help me complete one of my ADSR 5 challenge layouts. ADSR 5 is the Amazing Digital Scrapbooking Race at NDISB.com. It is a series of challenges, with teams continuing on if they complete their challenges correctly by the allotted time. It's fun:



The second designer I worked with this month was Kathryn Estry. I chose her kit League Night, because I don't have any bowling kits, and we've been bowling a few times. I thought it would be fun to see what I could come up with. Here are my pages:





You can see these pages and more, in my gallery HERE at Gotta Pixel. Gotta Pixel has my most complete scrapping gallery.

Thanks for reading,

Praying for peace for Layla Grace

Praying for Layla Grace

I made this page with a photo from www.laylagrace.org. I hope they will understand I'm using the photo to generate a prayer for their sweet girl. This angel is being called home, very soon I'm afraid.

Please pray for this family, if you're the praying sort. And if you aren't ... please think positively that Layla will know no more pain, and only peace.

Hugs to our little ones,
Melinda

My favorite time of day: going to bed because ....

One of my favorite things about going to bed at night is that my 3 year old usually comes to bed with me. My 3 year old goes to bed later at night so that he will sleep in later to allow my husband a little bit more rest. My husband works an odd shift. It's a different schedule, but it actually works pretty well most of the time.

At night, Chase and I head to bed together most of the time. Chase is potty-trained now ... he was by far the easiest to "train" ... and so he usually goes to bed in a t-shirt and undies. He lays down in my husband's spot, and when my husband gets home and is ready for bed, he moves Chase to his own room and bed. (We tried getting Chase to sleep in his own bed all night through, but it was a difficult battle, and it broke my heart to see him so sad ... this way makes us both happy.)

Chase cuddles up right next to me. Usually he talks to me for a while before I remind him that we really need to get some sleep, and then he settles into sleep rather quickly. There is a night light in his room, and he has to have it on, but in my room he insists on wanting the door nearly shut, even though it blocks the glow coming from his room and puts us in nearly full darkness. He feels safe with us. I love that. Chase's chatter is soft-spoken at bed-time, and he tells me about what he did that day, or his dreams, or his shows that he loves so much.

I love to lay there and listen to him and cuddle with him. I try to remember if I did this with the other two kids, but I can't remember. I have a horrible memory. In fact, I was going to remember the story Chase told me last night. I wasn't going to forget it, but I already have. I wonder if I will ever remember it?

I've been enjoying these moments even more since reading about Layla Grace and her battle with Neuroblastoma, which may soon be at an end, though of course we all hope and pray for a miracle. Layla's mother wrote recently about her regrets, and she's right that it's easy to wish the time we have with our children away ... and that we would want it back so badly if something as awful as this were to happen to a child of ours.

So, I guess what I'm getting at tonight (in a probably rambling and not well written way), is to hug your children a little tighter, hold them a little longer, listen to them a little closer, make sure you tell them that you love them, and to enjoy them ... for Layla. I'll try to remember this too. It can be hard when we get caught up in our day-to-day grind ... but our children are only children once, and no one knows how long they (the collective "they" of all people) have on this earth ... no one. We should do our best to enjoy each other while we can.

Hugs,
Melinda

A Blog Train for my Fellow Heart Moms! (digital scrappers)

For those of you who are moms of heart babies and children, there is a CHD Awareness Digital Scrapbooking Blog train that has started today on Toucan Scraps' blog.

You can read more about it here!