Well, last week kept us on our toes. By Thursday we were exhausted. Saturday night, July 28th started the Holy Spirit Conference at church which ran through Wednesday night, August 1. Actually, most nights it was well past midnight when the services ended. We had three great speakers, Heidi Baker, Bill Johnson, and Randy Clark. And, a real move of God as the conference was covered in prayer. But, poor Joe was in pain by the time the conference ended--he'd signed up to usher in all but the first meeting. That meant a lot of hours on his feet every evening.
The weather was nice, though. We usually get rain in July and August. At least we get elevated humidity. Sometimes the higher humidity does us no good, but we had overcast skies (which helped cut the heat) and even a bit of rain most days last week. That meant lots of muddy doggy paws and, since the rain was accompanied by thunder and lightening, tranquilizers for Toby. Of course, Joe's idea is that if one works, two are better. And, if two are better, why, we are nearing nirvana if we add in a couple of Benedryl. The poor dog was passed out all night and hung over all the next day. But, when Toby stays calm, Indy stays calm. Punky mostly just ignores them, but even she gets a little upset. So, it's good to keep Toby calm (though passed out may be a bit too much!).
Jen was out of town all last week. She was at the yearly meeting she usually attends. It was apparently quite difficult for her. She had signed up for some "official duties" and found herself with her own two kids needing a lot of attentio from her because she was there on her own. I guess folks helped out where they could, but you still have to be careful to whom you entrust your kids. Anyway she came home from "vacation" complaining about how tired she is...... Seems pretty normal to me. If I DO get to relax for a day or two, I usually take on too much sight seeing. Then, when we arrive home, there's all the catch-up work to do. I'm pretty sure, unless you have a "staff" of servants, vacations just aren't all they're cracked up to be.
Well, just a little over a week til the August 15 extensions expire. I have several returns still to complete, but it looks (today) as though only one will be done by August 15. I'll be needing to extend the rest through October 15, I fear.
Don't know if I mentioned it here, but we got a letter from our friends at the IRS that our 2005 return was under audit. They wanted to audit contributions. I find that pretty darn weird because we attached receipts to the return when it was filed. I think it is because Joe didn't have ALL the receipts, so, without telling me, he only attached some of the receipts. That, of course, makes them think you realy don't have any more receipts and they should check you out more closely. It seems we have managed to produce receipts for all but $45 of the claimed amount. Joe hasn't sent the package off to them, but it's about 50 pages so that ought to give them some good reading......
Well, we are having one of those months we hate. Money is nonexistent. If it weren't for our credit lines and credit cards, we would be homeless. July was an awful month. August is looking like it will be better, but we won't see any of that money til September. Unless the Lord comes through with a real miracle, I just don't know how we can keep going as we have been. So, if anyone has spare prayer time, there's something to pray about.
I'm going to post some pages and get on with the laundry. Sometime today, I have to get some accounting work done too. Hope you enjoy.....
Atticus is a darling little boy who at 5 months, still has beautiful blue eyes, a sweet temperment, and a pnk bow of a mouth. But, he has what Mommy calls "Elf Ears". Once he gets more hair, they'll be less noticeable, but I can see where she gets the name...... I used Nina's new kit called Say It With Flowers for this page. You can find Nina's designs at NDISB and at O Scraps.
Just a tongue in cheek layout about this photo of Joe taken in old town San Diego. I actually thought this was a wooden Indian til I looked at if closer and discovered it is really a wooden Spaniard. I used Traci Reed's Ruffled Shirt kit for this page. I also used a template by Deb Fisher. Deb recently lost her husband and is now left to raise their 7 children alone. Deb Fisher is a talented designer who sells at Pickleberry Pop.
I took these photos of Will a couple of months ago and thought they turned out particularly well. I did this layout for Lifts with a Twist. The blue paper and glitter frame are from Amanda Rockwell's Neon Floral; the alpha is Amanda's After the Rain; the other glitter elements are from Amanda's kit called Into the Light. The newspaper swirl is by Faith True. The sheet music flower is by Tracy Ann Robinson as is the colorful swirl behind the small flower. The ribbon is from FPD's Funk that Spring kit. The doodled frame and sun are by Ida. All of Amanda's products are available exclusively at amandarockwell.com.
Found this sweet note from my DD in a box the other day. She was about 10 years old when she wrote this. She knew the story of her birth and that I had fought for her life. I decided this story merited a scrapbook page. The papers here are by Deb Fisher. The template used to cut the scalloped shape is by Jen Caputo. The ribbon is by Fhung (recolored). The butterfly is by Amy Bleser and the frame on the photo is by Traci Sims. The tear is by Grace Bennett. Deb recently lost her husband and is now left to raise their 7 children alone. Deb Fisher is a talented designer who sells at Pickleberry Pop.
Atticus has been teething and chewing on everything in sight, including fistfuls of Mom's hair. Yuck! DD claims her hair is always full of baby slobber. But we can see a tooth, so I guess it's worthwhile. I used Lynn Grieveson's Elizabeth kit for this page. The heart element is from her Sparkles element pack. The swirl is by Tracy Ann Robinson, used as a clipping mask for papers from the kit. I also used Jennilyn's "Bended Frame". You can find Lynn Grieveson's products exclusively at Designer Digitals.
This is one of the photos from our trip to Oxnard last fall. People ask me "why Oxnard?" and I have to say that there's little along the coast that isn't beautiful and photo-worthy. I used the new customer appreciation kit from NDISB called Vacanza Piena di Sole. The bow is recolored and the doodle flowers are from Ange Barton's sampler kit "25". I was inspired by a layout I printed off the internet sometime ago which unfortunately doesn't contain any information to identify the creator. If it's yours, please sing out so I can give you proper credit.
I seldom scrap commercial pictures, but I thought this one was particularly well done for a school picture and I thought it might be important to my stepdaughter and DH to see it scrapped. I scraplifted a layout by inskidahv which can be seen here: http://www.scrapbook-elements.com/ga...p;limit=recent I used Nina's new kit, Life is Beautiful, which is available at NDISB and OScraps.
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