*Giggle*....

I do have a funny story to tell.

My younger dd turned 2 in July, and she has already started to make jokes!!! She tries to tell knock knock jokes, but not very well.

Tonight, she made up a real joke! In Richmond, our local grocery store is Ukrop's. Since my dh is a "true" Richmonder, this is where we shop most of the time. Well, we told the kids we were going to Ukrop's, and my dd's response was:

"No!!!! Mycrops, not Ukrop's!!!!"

Oh, this sparked an onslaught of insatiable laughter from all of us!! And she absolutely knew that she had told a joke!!! Too funny!!

Long time, no blog!!!

So I have been seriously slacking on updating this blog!!! Ah, but life does get in the way sometimes! I did participate in a really fun crop at Create My Keepsakes over the weekend. I managed to get one challenge done! This is the layout I created for it... with an emphasis on texture. It was fun! These papers are from Creative Imaginations. They are from a beachy collection, but the colors look very fall-like to me! Letter stamps by Tin Box Creations! Chipboard letters from Maya Road.

Oasis

In the midst of our suburban Richmond utopia, we have an oasis known as Wawa. We live less than 2 miles from the closest one... and love it for its cheap gas, clean and well-lit convenience store, and COFFEE.

My dh would hate to admit it, but he has become hooked on coffee. At one time, he referred to the brew as dirty water, but this morning, he said to me, "It's your turn." Thinking that he was referring to getting our younger dd, who, at this point, had been asking interchangeably for mommy and daddy for about 5 minutes from her crib, he surprised me. "It's your turn to go to Wawa for coffee."

Keep in mind that we now also have a brand new Target with a Starbucks inside literally across the street from Wawa, but my dh chooses Wawa! Well, I happily obliged his request that I make the coffee run (10 minutes of solitude is priceless some days!) and left with 2 coffees and 3 doughnuts for less than the cost of 1 Starbucks fancy coffee! That is indeed a bargain!

My kids were in heaven eating their bakery treats! And I was (finally) awake in a state of caffinated bliss! What a great way to spend a Sunday morning!

My Final Scrapncircle projects!

I'm kind of sad to be posting these.... I have been with Scrapncircle almost since the very beginning... when my dear friend Tisha created the site. I have seen it pass hands a couple of times, each time to another dear friend. But, alas, good things must come to an end, I guess, and Jeri has decided to close the online store.

But for our last hoo-ra, Jeri gave us some beautiful products from SEI. I had the Kitty's Place line to work with... so cute! I almost bought the whole line literally the day before my package arrived on my doorstep! Imagine my joy as I opened that package!

Jeri, I wish you the best of luck in your future scrappy (and any other) endeavors... you are a fantastic person, and I'm so lucky to know you!

Nice.

What a simple word.

It's the centerpiece of my most famous Anne-ism... something I tell my patients all the time when they thank me for helping them.

"It's easy to be nice to nice people."

They think about it for a moment, then laugh when they realize that I have just paid them a compliment.

Our message this morning in church was about Jesus' lesson to love one another. Although I am not obtrusively Christian, I try to be a good person and exhibit my Christianity by example. (in fact, I'm usually suspicious of folks who flaunt their spirituality.) This is a product of growing up next to some of the most self-righteous neighbors you could ever meet, and learning repeatedly how truly un-Christian these folks were.... the stories I could tell!

Yet this brings up the other point... I struggle daily to not hate. Don't you? How difficult is it to not be angry with that guy who cut you off on the road... the customer service rep who clearly does not care about what you need... people who have hurt you in the past.... people who live on the other side of the planet, have never met you, yet still hate you.

How can I learn to forgive these people?

I especially struggled after 9/11. I can forgive the people who actually carried out the act. Why? Because in my mind, they were simply carrying out the orders of a clearly delusional, evil person. They themselves were victims, too. It is more difficult to forgive their leader. I'll leave that challenge for another day.

A more common struggle for me is when I have worked an entire day, my kids are driving me crazy, and I have to run an errand.... and the person I need to help me clearly does not want to do their job. Then I finally lose my patience. I become a mean person! How difficult it must be for them to be nice to me?! Does this happen to anyone else? LOL!!!

A clear lesson in forgiveness can be learned by the Amish who were so deeply wounded by the senseless murder of 5 of their daughters. Remember those school children who were held hostage? In the middle of perhaps the most peaceful place in this country, a most violent, un-peaceful act was committed. Yet the Amish families actually attended the murderer's funeral, offering sincere condolences to the widow and his children. They are now forming a trust fund for his children. I heard this story on NPR the other day, and it had me in tears.

I seriously doubt that if I found myself in the same situation that I could offer that kind of forgiveness.

So, while it is easy to be nice to nice people, it is, obviously, extremely difficult to be nice to mean people. I hope I can learn to exude niceness rather than impatience at the end of the day!

She's too young....

to be thinking about stuff like this!!!

So my 5 year old dd says to me:

"Mom, can I have a sleepover with Carter?"

me: "Is Carter a boy or a girl?"

"He's a boy."

me: "No. Girls don't have sleepovers with boys."

"But Carter LOVES me, Mom!"

me: "I'm sure he does, but girls don't have sleepovers with boys until they are married."

She seemed to understand that answer. I think 7AM is too early to deal with issues like this!!!

Birthday Bash!!!

Looking for something scrappy to do this weekend? Well, we are having a BIG PARTY to celebrate Scraplovers' second birthday! Come on over and celebrate with us! We've got tons of challenges and special classes for this event. I have a class on hand stitching myself!

Yay!

Just got an e-mail from Paper Trends for a card for the Feb/March 2008 issue! This is my first card pub!