Laura's piece of Paradise

March Madness Scrapbook Style!!!! I have been very productive in March. I am very proud of myself, but now it must come to an end! :) I have to get ready for Easter and that means I will be cleaning and decorating more than scrapping. (It's all good, it means more pictures to scrap later) LOL Funny how life works out that way. So, I'm in a much better place than I was when I wrote in here a couple of weeks ago. I go back and read that post and want to delete it, but it was necessary and cathartic to write and so I am going to leave it in there. Now I know that things happen for a reason, even if I'm not aware of it yet, so I am in a much better much more accepting place than I was before. :) (so have you noticed that there are too many smilies and too many parenthesis, I know...get over it) ! LOL :) :) :) :) Anyhow I digress...Here are the things I have been working on this last couple of weeks of March. (I just wrote January, wow am I behind the times)! Seriously: Here a...

I am adding a post just to post this picture of this layout for use your stash. It is a cute blog that gives challenges for using stuff you already have. (GET IT NO BUYING!) LOL Here it is! Zoe is so silly! :) She can make me giggle like a little kid. So I think it is fitting that I have a happy post today! :) Thanks for all your kind comments...It will always get better! :)

Well here I am and "I keep passing open windows," and keep on keeping on. Ok, so life could be so much worse, but here it goes. Tuesday I had to sign my pink slip for work. This is an annual event for teachers who do not have a permanent contract. The only difference about this year is that the principal could not guarantee that she would be able to call me back for next year. So that means the clean out will begin soon. I spent my summer last year cleaning out my room and buying toys and nice things for the kids to play with. Now I have to bring it all home because I won't be reimbursed for it. I am a little sorry for the next teacher who comes in that room because they will have an empty room, no curtains, nothing that I made or spent my money on will be there. Considering most of the prior teacher's items were thrown away because they should never have been brought into the school. The yard sale queen had lots of dirty, broken, and really smelly items. I could not ...

Oy, I go and read Lis' blog and here is a TAG!!! Shucks!!! Looks like Fun, so I'll do it! Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Here's a little fun nonsense.You are supposed to bold the ones you've done.If you read this, consider yourself tagged! LOL 99 Things To Do 1. Started your own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than you can afford to charity (yes, see #67)! :) 7. Been to Disneyland (Disney World) 8. Climbed a mountain 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sang a solo 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris 13. Watched a lightning storm at sea 14. Taught yourself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child (nope, but I want to!) 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22. Hitch hiked 23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (today! :) ) 24. Built a snow fort 25. Held a...

Lots of them lately!!! It really is nice to be scrapping again! It is a way for me to not worry about the future is to look at and really love my life as is. These are some of my most favorite recent layouts! :) Billy and I on his birthday! :) December 27, 2008 This is Jayne and Leo on Thanksgiving This is my Mom and Dad the middle of June 2008 This is the card Billy gave me for our anniversary...so sweet. I don't normally scrap cards, but it was just so sweet I couldn't let it fall into my memorabilia folder and be lost forever. So I did something with it while it was still laying on my desk. Bethanie and Michelle in 1995 and in 2008...too cool, huh? This layout was noticed by Lifetime Moments and was featured in their newsletter. I know whoopie, but it did make my day! :) It is nice to be recognized for something you love to do. :) Now most of these layouts are in answer to a challenge of some sort or another, but what I love about these layouts, even though they MEET the c...

APPRECIATE That is my word for thise year. I am going to try to appreciate all that I have, meaning my family, my health and my life. I am going to go and make something right now to help me remember to appreciate all that I am, and maybe even try to do a mini book about the things I need to appreciate and the little things that I do appreciate. Some of the little things: Like a good cup of coffee a nice back rub from my dear sweet hubby a good purry kitty in my lap a hug from a little girl who doesn't quite get it. Some of the big things: My Family My house My life Did you notice my "job" isn't one of those things. I appreciate my job, but at the same time I'm not going to be ruled by it. As we were told that annual contract teachers MAY not be asked back. That makes me sad in that I feel I am NOT done with some of my students, but at the same time, it leaves me free to look at other options for jobs. I may not be a teacher 2009/2010 school year. It seems h...

Bethanie's 16th birthday, no big party, no super sweet sixteen. She just wanted a small quiet happy birthday party. It was just me and Branch as Billy was gone for work. We went the next night to her favorite place to eat with Daddy! :) She is such a beautiful happy girl. I am so honored to know her, and to think we made her...mind boggling! Here are some promised pictures of Bethanie during her first horse back riding lesson. She looks so grown up, I swear every time my kids have a birthday I get sadder. I know they won't be living with me much longer. Although I will be excited for them to meet the next challenge in their life, it breaks my heart to think I won't be able to see them whenever I want to. Bethanie loving being on the horse, when the lesson was over the first thing she said was it was too short! :) Ok, so this is 2 posts in one weekend. That is unusual at best! :) Enjoy the rest of the pics. Bethanie just about done! :) Bethanie smiling..."my legs hurt...

Ok, so a long time ago I promised Bethanie we would look into getting Horse Back Riding Lessons again, it is time to keep promises. Tomorrow is her first lesson and part of her Birthday Present, I'm so excited for her. She is tickled. Big news this week is Bethanie turned 16. (Where oh where has my little girl gone?) I miss my little girl sometimes, but what a wonderful young lady we have. She is such a nice person, I'm so proud to know her. Well, her birthday was something else. The day before her birthday Meme suprised both kids by giving them her old car. They are both so excited they have a car to learn to drive with. I'm excited for them too. I am happy that they will be able to learn to drive and have transportation at the same time, I'm terrified that they are going to be driving. Billy went on a business trip this week, he left Monday and came back Thursday it was short and sweet, but he was so missed. I had such a hard time sleeping because he wasn't here. ...

Happy New Year!!! I have never been so happy to see a year end in my life. I know 2009 will be very challenging for work, but hopefully less heartbreaking personally. My dear sweet husband said 2008 started badly and just continued to get worse. I have to agree. It was a bittersweet Christmas. We all missed Billy Sr. so much. I hope that 2009 is more prosperous and happy for all of us. I have a lot of lofty goals for 2009, I started today by weighing myself and being somewhat surprised. The last time I weighed myself was at the Dr.'s office in May and it was quite shocking! I have never been that heavy before so I was so shocked. I will never tell so don't ask what the number was! The only happy thing is I got on the scale and I have lost 18 pounds. I don't feel like I look like I have but the scale doesn't lie, does it? LOL (I even checked the scale by putting my hand weights on there to make sure it was accurate! :) ) Scrapbooking! :) Yippee I have been scrapping agai...

Hello all! I just wanted to announce the winner of the Goals Challenge. Eeny Meeny Miny Moe and the winner is Denise! :) Thanks for playing Denise and I will have a goody in the mail for you on Friday! Thanks for all who played along, I loved looking at your stuff! Have a great week! Hugs, Ok, so this picture is only here for the "Awwwwwwwwwwweeee" Factor. :) So cute.

A scrapper's Goal is sometimes elusive, but when we set one up, it tends to give us motivation to scrap. Kind of like wanting to be a teacher made me go through 5 years of college and lots of irritation for very little pay! :) Ok, so I love my kids and that makes it all worth while and I always have a new set of babies to scrap. My goals for this weekend are 2 pages on my Calendars (this is finish May and get June done!) This is what they looked like in the beginning! :) So, I have made progress from there and that motivates me to finish! That is a total of 6 pages. Let's see if I can do it! :) I also have lots of die cuts and things to make for the bulletin board at school too. :) I may show that later, if I get the pages done! :) Put your goals in the comments below and if you meet all your goals I will put a small RAK in the mail to you on Monday! :) Thanks for playing and have a fun!!! Now Set some goals and SCRAP!

Gettin Sketchy's December Sketch Here is December's Sketch: Here is my take on this sketch! :) The sad news is I will be leaving Gettin Sketchy after this month. I officially resign from the CT Janury 1, 2009, for various reasons. When school starts again after the holidays my class is going to almost double and I will not have time for scrapping let alone posting and doing my assignments, etc. Philosophical reasons include my desire to do my own designs again. I am not at all happy scrapping someone else's designs. I think I am burnt out on sketches. The idea behind doing a sketch was to do a sketch when I was stuck for a design. I could go to a sketch and still get a layout done. However, I have become very reliant on sketches and stopped designing my own layouts. With that being said, it is time to back off sketches and have fun designing again. Even if my style is blocky and linear, it will be my design...not how someone else told me to do it. :) Now, don...

Hi everyone! We have a new sketch at GettinSketchy! :) It is similar to last month's with the four little photos. Here is my take on the sketch using the kit from last month's prize. The CT got a chance to play with some of the products in the kit and this is what I did with my share! It was very nice of Spud to let us play with her kit! :) Now the moment you have all been waiting for!!! Lis (Melissa) is the winner of the blog candy. Thank you for playing Lis and Kathea. Kathea you will be getting a consolation prize for playing too! :) Please send me your addresses so I can send out your prizes. Thanks again for playing! :) Happy Scrapping everybody! :)

I have a bonus challenge for you. Do not use any challenge, do not use any Sketches…Just use your imagination to do a page. Do whatever you want…This is actually a NON-Challenge. The reason why I have this challenge for you is because I just put all the pages I have done since August away ( it is a truly paltry number) and found EVERY ONE of them were in response to a challenge. Whether it was part of the CT duties at Gettin’ Sketchy or Lifetime Moments Scrapfests or Dedicated Swappers II Scrap off challenge. Not one thing was just because. Not one item was just because I wanted to scrap. That scares me now that I have turned my beloved hobby into something “I have to do.” Not a single one of these pages were my own creation or idea. None, nada, Zip. What happened? I never used sketches 3 years ago and I truly LOVED my pages. Now I look at my pages and they are all starting to look the same. Becky Fleck is a talented sketch artist…but they are all HER style, not mine, wait a minute, wh...

I heard lots of of people say that they weren't crazy about the one picture layout! :) This should cure that! :) Enjoy and don't forget to post your link to your page in the comment section or email gettinsketchy@hotmail.com ! Thanks and have a great day! My take on this sketch! :)

Here is another one using the sketch for September. Scrap off challenge use the GettinSketchy sketch for September. And a few other layouts I have done recently for the scrap off on Dedicatted Swappers. (We should be called Dedicated Shoppers! LOL Here they are: Scrap off Challenge: Scrap your favorite _____________________ Next challenge was to use as much paper as you wanted, but only one embellishment. You can use as many of that one embellishment as you want, but only one kind! (I used buttons) :) Scrap off challenge, use an embellished border on your layout. Mine was the ribbon on the bazzill with an edge. I hope you like what I've been doing lately, Can't wait for the Ocotober fest challenge on LM to do a layout a day, maybe I will get it done! :) Maybe I can get my Calendars done for Christmas early. :) Hugs, and thanks for coming by. Laura

A new sketch is available on GettinSketchy and here it is! :) Here is my interpretation of the sketch this month. A sweet photo of Branch when he was 6 or 7 years old climbing the Crepe Mertyl in our front yard at Moody Air Force Base GA! :) I miss my kids being little but I don't think I would like to go back to just that small. :) I wouldn't want to be without my husband again, and during that time in our lives he was gone so much! I'm so glad we are no longer part of the Air Force, we really like having a steady family life. I will have good news tomorrow! :) I will keep you guys hanging on! :)

School's in and boy do I have a wonderful little bunch of students. So far I have 7 students and they are as cute as they can be! OH MY! I think I may be in love! :) I know I am. Well, here is what the classroom looks like now, (compared to the nightmare that used to be my classroom) :) As soon as you walk into the room this is what you see. I have curtains over all the toys and distractions in the shelves. The kids have a hard time focusing if they have too many things to look at. It is rather soothing in the classroom now instead of hard to breath! :) This is the table and the back counter and cabinets where we have lots of stuff hidden from the kids, but inviting too. :) This is an over view of the room from the door, You can see the kitchen and household play, you see the rice table (it is the picnic table that opens up) The little table with the red chairs is the art center, the back table is the job table/lunch table. In the far corner of the room is my desk and the...

It has been a long time since I blogged . Lots of things have happened...too much really. My last day at Pea Ridge Elementary was June 8, 2008. I don't think I have ever been so sad about leaving a job in my life. I am excited about the new job but at the same time, I have never felt so much at home in a school. It was such a nice experience, I will miss all my friends. (This is a bunch of the Pea Ridge Crew on my Birthday, From left to right... Becca, Cindy, Amanda, Diane, Me, Bea, Tiffanie) (yes, Bea is real Michelle!) LOL I am going to Oriole Beach Elementary as a Pre-K teacher of 3 year olds. I'm excited about the job but sad to leave my friends. I will be getting a pay raise in that I won't have to pay for the bridge or for gas, but I have a feeling I will be spending a LOT more time at school. Here is a picture of an extremely messy room. Hopefully the next time I blog about my room it will be nice and clean and ready for my students and parents for orientation! :) M...