QUARANTINED!!!!

That is what is going to be posted on our front door if we come down with anything else in this house. It's only been 4 weeks into the school year and only a few days into the official fall season, but we have already been hit with 2 major illnesses. Actually Justin has been hit the hardest--poor guy. Two weeks ago, he came down with the stomach flu and missed 2 days of school. He was better in a couple days, but then the rest of us came down with it. It was a pretty quick bug, but still took its toll, especially since Dale was out of town at the time. He said it was actually better that he was gone because with both of us not feeling well, we both would've been battling for the most pity and downtime. So we finally got over that and everyone got back to school, and I thought things would finally get into a routine and then this week Justin came down with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease. Basically he had a fever and his entire tongue was like one big canker sore. I could not even imagine the pain. He has been miserable. He missed another 3 days of school, which I think is about all he missed total last year. He finally went back today because the fever has been gone, but the sores can last for up to 10 days. I really hope they go away soon, and I hope that Hannah and Owen don't get it. So far, they haven't shown any signs. So I hope this is the end of all this and finally next week we can have a normal week, although with 3 kids, I guess no week is ever really normal.

In other news, a week ago, I took Hannah to the mall for one of those milestones that every girl does. We got her ears pierced. She has off and on wanted to do it for over a year, but really started getting serious about it in the past few weeks. I just wanted to make sure that when we did it, she wasn't going to freak out and/or back out. She was very nervous, especially since we had to wait in line for a little while, but she did great. There were 2 girls piercing her ears so that they could do both at once, but one of them actually didn't work, so they had to do that one over again anyway. They gave her the option to come back another day to get that one repierced or do it again now, and she just said "Now!" She was very brave and didn't shed a single tear. She is very proud of her earrings but can't wait for 6 weeks to be up so she can change earrings, especially since she has been a beading fool and making all kinds of earrings

Finally, it has been a long time since I have posted any scrappy stuff on my blog. There have been many months of awesome Scrapdango kits, but I haven't posted my kits or my creations. So here is the current Scrapdango kit that I got to work with. I actually helped design this kit as well, so I chose lots of things that I loved, but I know you will love it too if you're a scrapper. So here is the September kit featuring Dream Street SAM papers.

and here are the creations I've made with the kit so far.

(Click on the layout and you can see it much better)

And finally finally, I have also had a very exciting thing happen in my scrappy life. I found out a few months ago that a layout of mine that I submitted to Creating Keepsakes magazine was chosen to be published, and it finally came out in the current October 2009 issue. To those of you who don't scrapbook, this is big. Creating Keepsakes is the premier magazine in the scrapbook industry and I have been trying for years to no avail to get published by them. It was so exciting to see my layout, and even a photo of me in those pages. Here is a photo of the article that I was in. The article was called 10 Amazing Reader Pages, and my layout is the Little Man one in the upper right. That is a photo of Owen 2 years ago. Hannah was upset that the layout I had published wasn't of her, but such is life.

Alright, I guess that's all I have for now. It's Friday, and I'm very thankful for that. I hope you all have a great weekend.

TTFN--Ta Ta For Now