Scrappin' the Details

We are in the Playoffs

We found out that Roman's flag team has made it to the playoffs!  So from now until Thanksgiving, we will be doing some traveling!  So excited for Roman, but sad because I had an event planned, but my children come first.

With our situation, Roman needs him Mom to cheer him on.  However, where was I this past Saturday during the last play of the game?  Busy organizing the snacks, instead of paying attention.

There is like 30 seconds left, and the score is 32-0.  I am assuming nothing too exciting will happen, so I decide to get my snacks in order.  All of a sudden, everyone is yelling and trying to get my attention.  I look up and what do I see, Brown Bear, Brown Bear,(okay, that popped into my head, because that is a favorite story of my kids).  Back to the story.  I see my son with the ball and running.  I was thrilled to see my son, trying to run as fast as he could.  They had called a fullback sneak and gave Roman the ball!!!  He ran 10-15 yards, before they took his flag!  So happy for him, but sad because I did not take a photo!

The parents were giving me a hard time, because I am always with my obnoxious camera and I miss one important moment!!!

Hopefully, they will run it again this weekend.  They were practicing this play this week, but because it is so cold I opted to sit in the car.

Anyway,  I will leave you with, yes, more football photos!  

I love this sport and am so glad that Roman loves it as well!  Too bad my Cowboys are not doing too great!

On another note, I also love the Lakers.  Now with the time difference they are playing super late.  I have fallen asleep during the last two games!  Usually, I am a night owl, but maybe my age has caught with me!

Tomorrow I will post photos of my Halloween Banner.  Since tomorrow is Halloween, I thought it was only fitting.  I will also share a sneak peek of a current layout I finished.  Love, love the paper that I used.  I will have to go out and buy more for my own scrapbooks!

Off to watch basketball.  Love this time of year!

Simple, Halloween Tags

Halloween is almost here, which means time for making treat bags.  Over the weekend I designed two very simple Halloween tags.  We punched spiders and stamped!

We spent the evening making these

and packaging them into these cute treat bags.  My sister had a difficult time giving these up!

We made Halloween treat bags for Roman's football team and Sierra's softball team.  They were simple tags.  I wanted to make the same tag for both, but Roman vetoed the purple cardstock.  

Here is the first one.  I stamped the large white circle with a large spider background stamp, use a silver brad in the center, tied string around the brad and attached a spider(punch from Martha Stewart collection),pop dotted another spider, adhered gems for the eyes and adhered to my favorite black scallop circle.  Edited to add, it was time consuming tying the string.  However, I wanted the spider hanging off the tag.

The other tag held by my cute niece, Sierra!

Again, same concept.  I used purple cardstock and a girly skull stamp from Imaginesce.  Finished the tag with black tulle.

Close up view:

Hope you enjoyed those.  They were fun to make and Sierra loves crafting.  

Before I go, I wanted to thank you for your kind comments and e-mails.  I appreciated all of them.  I also wanted to address a few questions that were asked.

Question:  Will you please post close ups of your Halloween Banner?  I want to see details!

Answer:  Yes.  I will be more than happy to do this.  Check back on Thursday!

Question:  Which stamp did you use for the letters on a Sweet moment(like this)

                    layout?

Answer:    This one by B-line Designs.

It ranks as one of my favorite all time stamps!  I use it so much, I could not show you the other side!  

Question:  Where is your Etsy Shop?

Answer:  It is coming.  I am also beginning an online venture with my good friend Jeannette.  It will include page kits, home decor, mini albums,etc. (2009)

Question:  How did you stamp and flock the chipboard letters?

Answer:  I painted the chipboard letters, let dry, and stamped with the above dotted background stamp,applied glue to the dotted design, and sprinkled the flock and shook off excess.  Very simple to do and now I want all the colors by Doodlebug!

Question:  Why are you scrapbooking one page layouts?

Answer:  I am normally a two page kind of gal.  Like most of you, I take too many photos.  I need two pages!!  Before I left, I took one Cropper Hopper photo box, and in it, contained, obviously, photos.  So I am working through them.  In some instances, I have only one photo, or there is one photo that has special meaning to me.  In the past, I wanted my scrapbook albums to be cohesive, meaning that if you open to a page, they were the same subject.  Not anymore!  There are no rules to this hobby.  I love scrapbooking and for me it is an opportunity to play.  

Finally, I wanted to address my "sassy friend", come back later this week!(:

I am off to work on a project, while I have a moment or two.  

Have a good night!

Five Days, Five Projects Kick Off(final project)

Hello everyone!  Today has been a crazy day.  I was out of the house by 7:50am and did not arrive home unitl 6pm!  The kids were tired.  After I fed the kids, my sister,Mom and I went to my favorite restaurant.  We had such a wonderful meal, but the day has caught up with me.  I am ready to go to sleep!

We had Roman's football game today, and they won 32-0.  This means that my boy is in the playoffs!!  Football is not over for us!  This game was special because at the end of the game, my son was involved in a special play!  I will have to update and of course add some photos of his game.

Before I show you my last project, I wanted to share Roman's news.  I am out running errands, and I do not have my cell phone with me.  It was in the car.(Very me)  When I return, there is a message from my Mom that the principal called. My first thought is one of my children was hurt or sick.  That was luckily not the case.  I saw on my phone that there was another message from the school and it was from the Principal. He was calling to inform me that my son, received an award.  This award is only handed to a few and Roman was one of them.  He was calling to let me know that for nine solid weeks Roman has been an exceptional student.  His teacher was the one to nominate him for this award.  I was so proud and it was so nice to hear all the positive things from the school.  

Roman's last year of preschool was a difficult one and to hear all of the positive, was amazing!  We are so proud of him.  During his teacher's conference, his teacher told me that on day one, Roman had stolen her heart.  Anyway, thanks for letting me beam about him.  I am so thankful that he truly loves school and that he is a gentle soul!

Okay, here is my project.  It is a layout called Tiny Bloom.  This layout has to be one of my favorites.  I love the big flower, but most importantly the photo.  Although, you cannot see her face, this picture conveys so much about Macie.

Here are a few closeups:

This view shows my semi hidden journaling and my stamped title.  I stamped my title and then emboss with the swiss dot template.  I also embossed the sheer flowers with the same template.

View of the embossed sheer flower and then placed over the paper flower for added dimension.

Just because this bird is so cute!

View of part of the title with a small tag embellishment!  Love tags and hanging embellishments off letters, pictures, flowers,brads etc. Covered chipboard letters with cardstock and used an exacto knife to trim.  Sanded edges.

Supplies used:

All paper-Basic Grey

Chipboard letters-Fancy Pants

Tag die-Quickutz

Buttons-Basic Grey

Floss-Bazzill

Lg. Chipboard circle-Bazzill

Gingham ribbon/Metal clip-Stampin Up

Brads/Paper flowers-Making Memories

Sheer Flowers-Maya Road

Big flower-trace from template and then cut out

Almost all of my layouts have some stamping involved.  

Stamps used: Prima,Making Memories,G Studios

I will be back soon and answer a few questions.  Thanks for visiting this past week and taking a peek at my projects.  I will share two simple Halloween tags next time I post!

Five Days, Five Projects Kick Off-Day 5

Hi, everyone!  Okay, so I was doing great, but LIFE got a little busy today(:  Sorry, but I will update my final project tomorrow.  Really, it will be later today because it is 2:22am.  I have been busy working on treat bags for Roman's football team.  What was supposed to be easy, turned out to be a little time consuming.  However, the end result was cute and I hope the boys enjoy them.  

Today was crazy with trying to find costumes,etc.  Anyway, I will  be back later today with a layout that is a new favorite of mine.  Thanks for your comments and e-mails.  I will address some of them tomorrow.

Have a great Saturday!

Five Days, Five Projects Kick Off-Day 4

Here I am on day 4 of my Five Days, Five Projects Segment.  This has been really fun and has helped me to blog on a more consistent basis.  Isn't this why I started blogging in the first place?

Okay, here is my next project and it is an altered cork board.  This is a gift for my Mother.  Again, you will notice a rooster embellishment.  She originally wanted a cork board like the one my sister has.  It is a red one with buttons all around the frame.  Of course, my mind did not go in that direction.  She did seem a little confused when she saw it in the beginning.  However, she love the outcome and is quite happy with her board.

Here it is:

It was so easy to make and fast!  I kept the design of this very simple.  I needed to ensure this was going to be functional for my Mother.

Here are more close up views:

I painted the rooster and the stamped it with a dotted background stamp.  One of my favorite stamps to use on chipboard letters.  I also used stazon to stamp the quote along the bottom.

Here simple title with a scallop die and buttons around a huge white flower.

Again, using stazon in inked with a Heidi Swapp photo corner set.

Last view:

Here I used a calendar stamp set from Creative Cafe to create the calendar template.  I forgot to mentioned that behind the calendar and photos, I used a partial transparency from Fancy Pants.  I love how it turned out.  It gave this simple project a little "extra."

Thanks for looking and if you have questions let me know.

We have not found costumes for our little kids.  I cannot believe I have waited this long.  We tried finding some tonight, but had zero luck.  We plan on searching again after Roman's football game on Saturday.  Any guesses on what Roman wants to be?

I was busy today with teacher conferences.  I received incredible news concerning Roman.  We are so proud of him!  It was a great and special day for him.

I will share that along with my last project for the week.  It is another layout and I think the layout I will share is my favorite one.  The picture is not that great, but to me it holds a special meaning.  I had so much fun designing the layout.  I knew what I wanted to achieve and it kinda worked out.

Have a great night.  Off to watch the Lakers!!!!!

Five Days, Five Projects Kick Off- Day 3

Hi!  I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!  My day is going to be short, because the kids are getting out of school early.  We have parent/teacher conferences today.

I am looking forward to them, because I have not had much feedback from their teachers.  Only one of them scaring Roman when she told him about the earthquakes in CA.  There is a story to that one and I will have to share it later! It is funny, but not.

Anyway, today is the third day of my Five Days, Five Projects Kick off.  Today, I am sharing a layout I did of Roman and Gabi.  I have had this photo a while.  I have wanted to scrap it and I finally did.  Gabi's face is scratched due to an injury at a children's restaurant, but I loved their expressions so much.

It is called a sweet moment [like this].   I love the colors on this one. The colors are vibrant and soft at the same time.  I love the closeness that I see between Gabi and Roman.

When I saw this line from Fancy Pants, I knew this photo would be used.  

Here it is:

Papers, button,ribbon, chipboard letters all from Fancy Pants Daily Grind Collection

Flowers, Prima

White flock,Doodlebug(love this stuff)

One flower embellishment from Making Memories

Scallop die from Quickutz

Clip-7 Gypsies

Heart-Paper Shapers punch

Metal heart-Making Memories

Stamps-Hero Arts, Creative Cafe, Technique Tuesday(my fave), Alphabet Stamps(Michael's dollar bin, gotta love those)

other Transparency,String

Hope you enjoy!  Here are more views:

Close up of title:

Close up of text stamped underneath circle and transparency on top.  You can also see where I used the White Flock from Doodlebug.  So much fun!

View of the row of flowers.

Finally, the left side of the stamping I did on the scallop border.

Okay, I will be back tomorrow with another project that is easy to make.  

I am off to relaz and begin working on a Halloween layout!

Five Days, Five Projects Kick Off- Day 2

My next project for my 5 days, 5 Projects Series is a Halloween Banner.  I used the Making Memories SpellBound Halloween Garland Kit.  As I state in the video, this kit was used as a foundation for this project.  If you have not purchased this kit, I would recommend buying this item.  It is an easy and cute project that you could complete prior to Halloween.  It looks like This

The kit included chipboard letters, chipboard shapes, paper scored for paper flowers, diecut tags and pebble shapes.  It was great because the banner panels are already precut for you.

I need to clarify that my banner you see in the video has much more product from this Collection and a lot of stamping.  Each of the panels are my own design.  As one friend said I embellished the "kit" out of it!  LOL 

I used so many stamp companies that it is difficult to name them all.  I will try and do a better job of listing the name of the product used.  I love to stamp, so I tend to use stamps from many companies.  Here is a list of a few I did used:  Martha Stewart,Stampin Up,Making Memories,Hero Arts and Creative Imaginations.  I did use fabric flowers from Making Memories, Rub On from K&Co,Karen Foster Brad,Yellow Bicycle Transparency from their Halloween Collection, Black Tulle,Quickutz Spider Web, Brads, Paint, Embossing Folder from Cuttlebug and Rub On from SEI Halloween Collection.  

I am certain I am missing a few.  I had so much fun with this Banner.  I made it as a gift for my sister and she loves it.  I spent about three solid nights working on this and trying to keep it a surprise from everyone.  I love to embellish, so it was so easy to get lost in this project. 

I hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions or feedback, I would love to hear about it!

Okay, here I am as promised.  Today, marks day one of my five project series.  I hope to inspire you and give you ideas for your scrapbooking projects.  Tell me what you think.

First project has been around, but I do not think I have actually altered a lunch box.  

My Mom saw this lunch box in a scrapbooking store and wanted me to make recipe box.  She even bought all the supplies needed for this project.  I guess it was her way of making sure I actually completed the box.

It is an Altered Recipe Box and these are the papers my Mom chose.  She loves roosters, so the paper was perfect.  In fact, I think she has  close to 50 roosters in her home.  They are not live ones!  She had so many that she may have lost a few while I have been here!

Here it is:

I only used patterned paper, cardstock and assorted ribbons on this box.  I did use the Maya Road sheers, which I love and the Fiskars threading punch.  If you do not have this, I highly recommend this product.  This project took me only one day to complete!  I think that is a record for me!

Here are a few close ups:

I did have difficulty with the top of the box, so I had to make some changes.  I thought the handle would pop off, but it did not.  If you have an easy way to alter the top, I would love to hear about it.  I am going to make more of these as gifts.  I think my sister would love something similar to this!

Okay, this is the first project.  Tomorrow, I will share the Halloween Banner.  So come back and tell me what you think!

Roman played his Homecoming Game this past weekend.  It was very exciting and fun for his entire team.  Why?  Because they were able to play on this field:

Homecoming games are important, but I did not expect this for flag football.  Since it was a homecoming the girls were able to wear mums.  Gabi was embarassed when I brought her Homecoming Mum to school.  On Fridays before football games, the students are able to wear their football and cheer uniforms.  The other students are able to wear their t-shirts and on this occasion wear Homecoming Mums.  I was not certain of this until the morning.  Her Mum had bells and charms, so it made a lot of noise.  I did not want Gabi disrupting her class.  The school said it was fine, so I went to Gabi's class and handed her the Mum.  She was mortified.  Her teacher had to convince her to wear her Mum.  It seems not all the girls had mums, so Gabi did not want to wear it.  In the end, she finally put it on.  

Here is a photo after school:

Roman did not win his football game but he did his best.  I love watching "My little Boy" play.  He may be scared of his own shadow,  but on the field he is a different person!  He does not want to play tackle football, so we may have to work on this. Luckily, this will not happen for another year.  He may need a little convincing from me and his Dad.

Here is another photo of Gabi with Roman.  Roman received a football garter and he was not happy!  He refused to wear a flower on his arm.  We had to do a lot, so I could capture this photo!

More photos on Homecoming Game:

Roman and his teammates getting some last minute advice!

Aunt Mandy, Sweet Macie and Uncle Lewis

Roman in action

Roman blocking.  I know it is not a close up photo, but trust me when I say he is the one still blocking after the whistle has blown!

Grandma displaying her love for Texas A&M with Gabi.  Doesn't Grandma know the Texas Longhorns are Number 1!  You may notice Gabi has on a different Homecoming Mum.  Her story although different from mine, reminded me of my fiasco with my Wedding Dress!  Oh, well.  

I could not resist posting this photo of my sweet Roman.  Here he is proudly displaying his disappointment with having to wear his Homecoming garter. He is about to step onto the field and have his name announce with his teammates.  He is only thinking of how angry he is that his garter has a flower!  He does look adorable and I cannot wait to scrap this moment!

Here is one more photo:

 

Roman and I after the game!

Thanks for letting me share this special day.  Today, marks my Five Days, Five Projects kickoff.  My next post will be just that.

Have a great Monday!

I wanted to share photos of Gabriela on her birthday.  She is ten years old and I am so proud of her!  First, you may noticed I made changes to my blog.  Tell me what you think.  I was playing around with typepad, but did not like what I created, so I used one of their designs for now.  Anyway, it will have to do until I have time.

Before I share photos of Gabi, do you remember I posted about an item that I wanted/needed?  Well, it finally is here or shall I say I went out and purchase the item.

Here it is:

Now you may remember my phone saga before I moved to Texas.  I lost my new IPhone the day before I was driving here.  I was so sad.  I only had the phone for a few months! During this time, the new version was out on the market and the phone was sold out.  I know I could have purchase a different phone, but I really loved my IPhone.  So I was going to wait until the phone was in stock.  When I finally received the phone, a friend told me that the phone was out in pink!  Of course, I wanted the new color.  I returned the phone.  At this point, Steve is not too happy with me.  I later found out this information was not accurate, so here I was without a phone.  I was okay with that.  I had Gabi's phone if I needed to call.  I was actually okay without having a phone.  Due to its absence, I had grown accustomed to doing without a cell phone.  

Fast forward school had begun, the school needed a way to contact me in case of emergency.  I then carried Gabi's phone with me.  However, it broke.  So I am back to square one without a phone.  Too busy to worry about it.  I decided not to make it a priority.  I know this situation frustrated some of you!  I am sorry.

Well, it finally took a semi emergency to get myself into a store to buy the phone.  It is a Tuesday night around 7pm and my Father makes a statement that it is going to be cold the next morning.  I decided to go to the mall to exchange Roman's jeans for a different size.  On my out, my car is not driving correctly.  I immediately pull into a Sports Bar parking lot and my fear is correct, I have a flat!  With no phone to call for help, I had to walk across this huge parking lot to find a place to call.  I did not have my Triple AAA information, so I had to call my sister to call my husband (in CA), to call them to come and save me.  I am exhausted just typing this.  Imagine how I felt that night!  So next day, I went to the nearest Apple Store and finally bought my phone!!!  I am such a procrastinator.  The good news my number remained the same!!!  By the way, Gabi also has replaced her broken phone!!

Now back to what this post is originally about, my beautiful daughter! 

I really tried making her day as special as possible!  There were a few moments that she was sad that she was not able to share this day with her Dad and friends.  She did say she was happy here, but just missed friends.  I wanted to do what I could to make it as happy as I could.  She awoke to breakfast and I bought her lunch from one of her favorite restaurants, Chilis.  I will admit that I was feeling guilty that this decision was not the right one.   I know many do not understand our situation and why we decided to do what we did.  I have had moments of sadness and guilt, but know deep down although our situation is not perfect, we are okay.  When I saw Gabi at lunch this help solidified what I was feeling.  Macie and I sat down to have lunch with Gabi.  Immediately, she had four little girls come to the table and surrounded her.  They each wanted to sit by Gabi.

One little girl told me they were on the playground and practicing tumbling.  They were also learning cheers.  As you know Texas is serious about football, but they are about cheer too.  All the young girls go over cheer chants and routines during recess.  As Gabi as stated it is a big deal to be asked to join a certain group of girls!  Anyway, Gabi is now the head choreogapher of this team of girls.  They saw her practicing or showing off her skills(:, on the playground.  They were excited to have them teach her some OC spirit.  

Anyway, I sat there just listening absorbing everything.  I was looking at Gabi and just thinking how proud I am of her.  She is so compassionate, loving, fun and one confident young girl.  I knew she was "okay."  I could let go of the guilt.  Then one girl came to the table.  She was looking for a place to sit, but there was not one.  Gabi tried to make room between she and I.  At this point I got up from the table, and let the young girl sit by her.  She stated that Gabi was her only friend.  Macie and I left Gabi, because I knew that even though our family situation is not perfect, it is okay that we are here.  It really is.

Here are more photos of her special day:

Gabi with Cousin Sierra, Roman and Macie

Aunt Anna and Uncle Mark were here to celebrate Gabi's birthday at Outback.

Gabi while we are singing Happy Birthday!

Roman and Gabi

This turned out to be such a long post.  I do need to be better of updating my blog.  I keep repeating this mantra, but I have not succeeded.  Anyway, to help me with this, I will be posting Five different projects on my blog.  I will upload a project a day beginning Monday and ending Friday.  I thought I would share some of the items I have created.  I hope to inspire you.  

Here are a couple of sneak peeks:

  I will come back tomorrow and share photos of Roman's homecoming game. 

They did not win the game, but it was special just the same.  Off to work on a scrapbook page.  Hope to see some of what you are creating too!

Five Days, Five Projects Kick Off

Okay, here I am as promised.  Today, marks day one of my five project series.  I hope to inspire you and give you ideas for your scrapbooking projects.  Tell me what you think.

First project has been around, but I do not think I have actually altered a lunch box.  

My Mom saw this lunch box in a scrapbooking store and wanted me to make recipe box.  She even bought all the supplies needed for this project.  I guess it was her way of making sure I actually completed the box.

It is an Altered Recipe Box and these are the papers my Mom chose.  She loves roosters, so the paper was perfect.  In fact, I think she has  close to 50 roosters in her home.  They are not live ones!  She had so many that she may have lost a few while I have been here!

Here it is:

I only used patterned paper, cardstock and assorted ribbons on this box.  I did use the Maya Road sheers, which I love and the Fiskars threading punch.  If you do not have this, I highly recommend this product.  This project took me only one day to complete!  I think that is a record for me!

Here are a few close ups:

I did have difficulty with the top of the box, so I had to make some changes.  I thought the handle would pop off, but it did not.  If you have an easy way to alter the top, I would love to hear about it.  I am going to make more of these as gifts.  I think my sister would love something similar to this!

Okay, this is the first project.  Tomorrow, I will share the Halloween Banner.  So come back and tell me what you think!

Roman's Homecoming game

Roman played his Homecoming Game this past weekend.  It was very exciting and fun for his entire team.  Why?  Because they were able to play on this field:

Homecoming games are important, but I did not expect this for flag football.  Since it was a homecoming the girls were able to wear mums.  Gabi was embarassed when I brought her Homecoming Mum to school.  On Fridays before football games, the students are able to wear their football and cheer uniforms.  The other students are able to wear their t-shirts and on this occasion wear Homecoming Mums.  I was not certain of this until the morning.  Her Mum had bells and charms, so it made a lot of noise.  I did not want Gabi disrupting her class.  The school said it was fine, so I went to Gabi's class and handed her the Mum.  She was mortified.  Her teacher had to convince her to wear her Mum.  It seems not all the girls had mums, so Gabi did not want to wear it.  In the end, she finally put it on.  

Here is a photo after school:

Roman did not win his football game but he did his best.  I love watching "My little Boy" play.  He may be scared of his own shadow,  but on the field he is a different person!  He does not want to play tackle football, so we may have to work on this. Luckily, this will not happen for another year.  He may need a little convincing from me and his Dad.

Here is another photo of Gabi with Roman.  Roman received a football garter and he was not happy!  He refused to wear a flower on his arm.  We had to do a lot, so I could capture this photo!

More photos on Homecoming Game:

Roman and his teammates getting some last minute advice!

Aunt Mandy, Sweet Macie and Uncle Lewis

Roman in action

Roman blocking.  I know it is not a close up photo, but trust me when I say he is the one still blocking after the whistle has blown!

Grandma displaying her love for Texas A&M with Gabi.  Doesn't Grandma know the Texas Longhorns are Number 1!  You may notice Gabi has on a different Homecoming Mum.  Her story although different from mine, reminded me of my fiasco with my Wedding Dress!  Oh, well.  

I could not resist posting this photo of my sweet Roman.  Here he is proudly displaying his disappointment with having to wear his Homecoming garter. He is about to step onto the field and have his name announce with his teammates.  He is only thinking of how angry he is that his garter has a flower!  He does look adorable and I cannot wait to scrap this moment!

Here is one more photo:

 

Roman and I after the game!

Thanks for letting me share this special day.  Today, marks my Five Days, Five Projects kickoff.  My next post will be just that.

Have a great Monday!

Gabriela's 10th birthday

I wanted to share photos of Gabriela on her birthday.  She is ten years old and I am so proud of her!  First, you may noticed I made changes to my blog.  Tell me what you think.  I was playing around with typepad, but did not like what I created, so I used one of their designs for now.  Anyway, it will have to do until I have time.

Before I share photos of Gabi, do you remember I posted about an item that I wanted/needed?  Well, it finally is here or shall I say I went out and purchase the item.

Here it is:

Now you may remember my phone saga before I moved to Texas.  I lost my new IPhone the day before I was driving here.  I was so sad.  I only had the phone for a few months! During this time, the new version was out on the market and the phone was sold out.  I know I could have purchase a different phone, but I really loved my IPhone.  So I was going to wait until the phone was in stock.  When I finally received the phone, a friend told me that the phone was out in pink!  Of course, I wanted the new color.  I returned the phone.  At this point, Steve is not too happy with me.  I later found out this information was not accurate, so here I was without a phone.  I was okay with that.  I had Gabi's phone if I needed to call.  I was actually okay without having a phone.  Due to its absence, I had grown accustomed to doing without a cell phone.  

Fast forward school had begun, the school needed a way to contact me in case of emergency.  I then carried Gabi's phone with me.  However, it broke.  So I am back to square one without a phone.  Too busy to worry about it.  I decided not to make it a priority.  I know this situation frustrated some of you!  I am sorry.

Well, it finally took a semi emergency to get myself into a store to buy the phone.  It is a Tuesday night around 7pm and my Father makes a statement that it is going to be cold the next morning.  I decided to go to the mall to exchange Roman's jeans for a different size.  On my out, my car is not driving correctly.  I immediately pull into a Sports Bar parking lot and my fear is correct, I have a flat!  With no phone to call for help, I had to walk across this huge parking lot to find a place to call.  I did not have my Triple AAA information, so I had to call my sister to call my husband (in CA), to call them to come and save me.  I am exhausted just typing this.  Imagine how I felt that night!  So next day, I went to the nearest Apple Store and finally bought my phone!!!  I am such a procrastinator.  The good news my number remained the same!!!  By the way, Gabi also has replaced her broken phone!!

Now back to what this post is originally about, my beautiful daughter! 

I really tried making her day as special as possible!  There were a few moments that she was sad that she was not able to share this day with her Dad and friends.  She did say she was happy here, but just missed friends.  I wanted to do what I could to make it as happy as I could.  She awoke to breakfast and I bought her lunch from one of her favorite restaurants, Chilis.  I will admit that I was feeling guilty that this decision was not the right one.   I know many do not understand our situation and why we decided to do what we did.  I have had moments of sadness and guilt, but know deep down although our situation is not perfect, we are okay.  When I saw Gabi at lunch this help solidified what I was feeling.  Macie and I sat down to have lunch with Gabi.  Immediately, she had four little girls come to the table and surrounded her.  They each wanted to sit by Gabi.

One little girl told me they were on the playground and practicing tumbling.  They were also learning cheers.  As you know Texas is serious about football, but they are about cheer too.  All the young girls go over cheer chants and routines during recess.  As Gabi as stated it is a big deal to be asked to join a certain group of girls!  Anyway, Gabi is now the head choreogapher of this team of girls.  They saw her practicing or showing off her skills(:, on the playground.  They were excited to have them teach her some OC spirit.  

Anyway, I sat there just listening absorbing everything.  I was looking at Gabi and just thinking how proud I am of her.  She is so compassionate, loving, fun and one confident young girl.  I knew she was "okay."  I could let go of the guilt.  Then one girl came to the table.  She was looking for a place to sit, but there was not one.  Gabi tried to make room between she and I.  At this point I got up from the table, and let the young girl sit by her.  She stated that Gabi was her only friend.  Macie and I left Gabi, because I knew that even though our family situation is not perfect, it is okay that we are here.  It really is.

Here are more photos of her special day:

Gabi with Cousin Sierra, Roman and Macie

Aunt Anna and Uncle Mark were here to celebrate Gabi's birthday at Outback.

Gabi while we are singing Happy Birthday!

Roman and Gabi

This turned out to be such a long post.  I do need to be better of updating my blog.  I keep repeating this mantra, but I have not succeeded.  Anyway, to help me with this, I will be posting Five different projects on my blog.  I will upload a project a day beginning Monday and ending Friday.  I thought I would share some of the items I have created.  I hope to inspire you.  

Here are a couple of sneak peeks:

  I will come back tomorrow and share photos of Roman's homecoming game. 

They did not win the game, but it was special just the same.  Off to work on a scrapbook page.  Hope to see some of what you are creating too!