What I am thankful for!!

I want to share a layout with all of you that I had done a few months ago. I loved these photos I had taken of the boys in the back yard and decided to use them in a circle journal I am a part of. The journal topic was "What you are thankful for" so this is what I came up with. ENJOY!!!

I really enjoyed picking out all the elements that went into this layout. I inked all the chipboard letters and the cardstock edges. I had just gotten my new Epson personal photo printer and was having fun being able to print 2x2 photos!!! Can you tell???











This is the journaling on the inside flap it reads:
"This is Zachery A.K.A Zachey Poo. He is my miracle boy!! Born 3 1/2 wks early and with fluid on his brain, we were not sure that he would make it but here he is. He has my personality!!! He is kind,sweet,fun,loving and a clown!!! There is a soft gently side to him that is so touching. Sometimes he gets me so mad and then the next minute he comes up on my lap and runs his hand on my face and says "mommy I wish I could take my hands all over your body and wipe all the cancer off of you" and I just look in his eyes and say "me too buddy" and we hug and kiss each other and tell each other how much we love each other and then I tickle him so I can hear his cute laugh. I tell him and his brother that he is my sun my moon my stars and my rainbow my everything!! I live for my 2 boys!!!

























Nathan's Journaling reads: This is Nathan A.K.A Don Won. He is my BIG FLIRT!!! He can sniff out a pretty girl 15 blocks away and play shy at the drop of a dime!!! One of mine and Nathan's favorite things to do is play Fuzzy Face". That's when we rub the sides of our faces together on each others cheecks... "Fuzzy Face". I love that when I pick him up at the end of his day at pre-school he is always excited to see me and runs to me saying "mommie"it makes my heart smile so big!!! When I go away I leave notes for him and his brother and I tell them that the angels bring them and puts them under their pillow at nights so they can find them in the morning. They love finding those notes when mommy is away and I love hearing their excited voices when they tell me about their notes.



Just about 85% of my scrapbooking is about Zachery and Nathan. I am starting to scrapbook more about me and my cancer. I am also starting to work on albums for other cancer survivors and for families that have lost loved ones to this beast of a disease Melanoma. I have 4 gorgeously designed albums ready to ship off to a husband that lost his wife recently to Melanoma. My Friend Shannon recently lost her battle a few months back and I really struggles with this loss!!! When she called me I wasn't able to call her back because I had just had the tip of my tongue removed and I too was facing some serious health issues so we emailed each other. She got more sick and went downward rather quickly. I withdrew after having been at Michelle's bedside 5 day's before she had passed I just knew what Shannon was going through and for my own selfish reasons I just could not go through it again. She had called again but I could not bring myself to return the call. Then I got the phone call 8 am Sunday morning while I should have been waking up to get ready for church my best friend called to tell my that Shannon had passed. I sat up in my bed and I cried so hard. I was so disappointed in myself and ashamed!!! How could I turn my back on my friend. I had been friend's with Shannon for 3 years and when she needed me most I turned my back out of fear!! I went into a very dark place a huge slump a plce I would go every so often when the Melasuckonoma would just get to be just too much for me to take anymore. It's a place where I don't let anyone in...not my friends, not my family, not even GOD. It's a cold dark place. I don't allow any food or drinking there because that would show surviving and that's not allowed there. All that was allowed there was self pitty and that was it!!! So there I was in my "Special place" not returning phone calls...ignoring the doorbell and knocks on the door...not eating...not showering.... taking care of the kids because I had no choice....but that was it.....nothing more nothing less...and then one day something happened to me. I got in my car and drove down the street to my church and poped in on my pastor unannounced. He had a small amount of time to talk with me but I can't even tell you what that 30 minutes did for me!!! He told me that I was more mad at myself than Shannon probably was and that I was probably more of a friend to her than I was giving myself credit for. He said that I needed to stop feeling so bad about being a survivor and decide what I was going to do with it. It was right there that I went home and felt the need to do something for Shannon's family to help them live with Shannon's memories. I went onto one of my scrapbooking message boards and made a post asking some ladies if they would help me with a project. The response I got was overwhelming!!! Ladies from PA to Canada to Hawaii to Alaska all came together, read Shannon's blog and each and every one of them made beautiful 12x12 scrapbook layouts and sent them to me. Some even printed out pictures from Shannon's blog and used them on the layouts others made the layouts and left them so that Ed and his family can decide what pictures they can use. I had albums donated from a Scarpbook store called the Crop Room and my friend Julie donated some as well. There is a special album just for Ed of layouts done up to celebrate the life and love that him and Shannon shared. There are 3 more albums, 1 is dedicated to camping, they loved to go camping, this one also includes some holiday layouts, another album is dedicated to their daughter Allanah and the final album is dedicated to their son Ryan. All of these layouts are geared towards putting pictures in of them with Shannon.
In my next post I will post some of my favorite layouts from these albums so you all can get an idea of the love that went into this.
I spoke with Ed a few nights ago to tell him what I had put together for him and the kids. He was in tears!!! He said that Shannon spoke about me alot and how she found it easy to be herself when she would talk to me. She said I was the closest thing to being a wise ass just like her and that's why she felt that way chatting with me. I really miss emailing with her. Every time I am cleaning up my IN box of emails I come across her last email to me and I read it and cry just a little. I still can't hit that "delete" button.
Anyway I will be carrying this big supper heavy box to the post office tomorrow to send off to Ed and the kids.