just some thoughts on being home

I am home! Can you hear the angels sing? I even unpacked.

Shauna at Up in the Nite inspired me to blog tonight. She did a blog on keeping house. Now, if you know me at all, I am busy. We are talking busy. I have 2 teenagers who are involved in their lives which means I am a full time taxi driver. I work for the Governor, not directly but he signs my pay check, I own a scrapbooking store. I have great friends and family and a hubby with 3 dogs. This doesn't leave much time to sleep let alone do laundry or clean.

Last year I rec'd the best advice ever from my friend at work Bonita. She told me that some people are better at cleaning than others. I would rather spend an evening with my kids than do 4 loads of laundry or clean the kitchen. I know some things are a given and have to be done but I am not going to lose sleep or relationship time over vaccum or sweeping the kitchen. Therefore we have a bi weekly housekeeper. She comes Monday morning and Thursday morning. We are then guarnteed that she will sweep, mop, clean the kitchen thoroughly, throw the laundry downstairs, muck out the bathroom including the tub and do the windows. She even dusts! She is a great organizer and she takes the pressure off of me. Now is my house clean? Nope, do you want to eat off of my floors, nope? You are guarnteed some dog hair or some dust, yes we do wear shoes in our house, yes we do at times leave towels and heaveforbid underwear on the bathroom floor. We don't make our bed each morning, the dogs would just mess it up. We take the garbage out each day but we don't mow our lawn each week in fact its about every 10 days. My husband and I, neither of us enjoy the outdoors and yard work, in fact we argue over it. Our yard kid moved on and Jake is too expensive.. so it gets mowed when we call someone.

But I can tell you this. I spend a ton of quality time with my kids, we laugh a lot, we connect and we share. I have fantastic friends that I keep up with and a successful business.

Just don't come over expecting a show home, its down the street a few doors or across town.... in the meantime you might find me laughing on the deck, or taking a nap...

Longing for home

Officially, I have done Dallas. I have been to Super Target, Super Wal Mart, various smaller shops, a great restaurant called Pantera where they serve small panini sandwiches and homemade soups. Johnny Carino's and I have become one. They are similar to Tomato Bros. with their friendliness and their menu. Tonight I had Calamari and salad to go. Not bad. Oh yeah, they have GREAT iced tea.

But I am done. I have been on the 288 loop a few times, I have sat in my fairshare of traffic and the guys who work at Race Trac thinking I am stalking them by coming in each day for my diet coke.

I am praying and asking God to bring me home tomorrow nite or the next.

TAGGED.... here goes

You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

M- Married. Yes I am married. I was married on 12-12-98. It will be 9 years this December. It seems like a million years at time and then just yesterday. This last year has been a real test of our marriage. Michael, Mike, baby... he a 6'5 blue eyed boy. Cute, funny and a great dad to our kids. But he suffers from a major depression disorder. Its wearing on a family when the "pillar" so to speak and they are down or sad, or non functioning at times. It takes a lot of energy running a family and keeping "daddy" happy. But God is faithful, and He brought us together. He will help us and keep us.

A- Adventure. I am always up for an adventure. Last year mom and I took on a new adventure by opening the store. It was a leap of faith on my folks part but always an adventure trying to find great things to stock our shelves and keep our customers coming back day in and day out. This week I am on an unexpected adventure, I am in Dallas, Texas. I am with my hubby while he gets some help for his depression.

R- Rest, Relax. This is something I am not good at. I don't really know how to just lay around and clear my mind. I am not good at naps, or watching a long movie. I have to keep moving. I like to surf the internet while I watch TV with the kids, I hate going to the real movies because you have to sit and only do one thing. This week I am sleeping in a bit and trying to rest. My whole goal is to support Mike. But I still am taking adventures daily with the rest.

I- Inspiration, Inspire.... I love to help someone find their dream, capture their vision. I am the cheerleader so to speak and really like to just be that person that can keep a group going. At the store I love it when instructors have new projects and I can inspire people to take their classes, or someone tells me they have boxes of photos and I can inspire them to get them onto pages.

E- Encourager- Encouraging goes with insprie. Its just part of me. I love to cheer people on, whether its in a new business deal, a side job, or their family life. I find that we all have power in our words. Its important to know that we can shape someone's future and help those around us just by being kind and thoughtful.

Now I tag, Aunt Jan, Brenda, Shauna and Michelle A.

Home sweet Store

We are so blessed ladies! I am trying to fill my days here in Dallas with some fun..... and you won't believe it, but I had to drive over 45 mins to find a scrapbook store. The first one I found was so weird, it was like a big empty JoAnn's, it lacked an kind of soul... I hope that doesn't sound too weird, it just bothered me that it was so lifeless, I longed for our paper racks and beat up furniture, the girls were nice enough but it was so "big box" feeling and the racks were empty. They didn't have complete lines like we do, My Minds Eye, Luxe, Dream Street, etc. Then they told me about a store another 30 mins away, they weren't able to tell me exactly it was against their store policy, so I called Becky, gave here the address and we did mapquest to find the location. I made it to Carrollton, Texas. Scrapbook Barn was a warm, friendly and comforting store. The lady was so sweet. I found some American Crafts paper and Treehouse items I liked. But I noticed they didn't carry My Minds Eye, Luxe, Dream Street or Junkitz. It made me so happy to know that we have some the latest and greatest in little Lewiston, Idaho. It made me thankful that we have fun in our store and love to meet new customers. I hope that if for some reason you stumble across us while you are on a short stay in the LC Valley you will find refuge in our Crop Paper Scissors.

I am longing for our beat up hutches filled with Tami and Debbie's project. I want to see Caylie and Evan's cute smiles on the walls. When I asked at the hospital here where to go find some scrapbooking stores they told me Michael's and Joann's. I know that when you ask at our JoAnn's they recommend Mem'ries and us. We also give each directions to the other store. Heck we've been known to call up to see if they have what you are looking for...

Yes ladies, living in the Great Northwest is not a bad thing. In fact even though the southern charm of Dallas is I appealing I can't wait to come home.

I will tell you this... we need a SONIC drive in and a RACE TRAC conveneince store. Sonic still has car side service and they serve COKE... woohoo, Race Trac is just next door to my hotel and they have over 30 types of fountain sodas for 69 cents. God was looking out for me teehee....

On the road 2

Hello from Texas. I am away unexpectedly on a family emergency. I noticed today that My and Me Big Ideas shipped. Also check out the new adhesive from K&CO wacky tack tape runner! It is really nice to use. I am not a big tape runner fan, I seem to mess them up. But I think you will like it. Stop by and see mom this week. Its weird not being around the store. Missing you all

Hot August Nites

I hope you will run by the store Saturday morning and check out the yard sale! I have had quite a few call to say they would be bringing their goods. I have had to be out of town unexpectedly this weekend. Pray for us, its a whirlwind trip. Ta Ta!

One week and counting

This weekend we did a little school shopping. What a fun time of year. New paper, notebooks and pencils. A fancy folder, colored pencils and erasers. I get excited finding treasures, and sales, it begins a new season. We will have a more defined schedule, it means cooler nites and warm sunny days. The Northwest has perfect indian summers, I love Fall. Its a time of change. I love that we still water the lawn but we can open the windows at nite. I love that the trees will turn in a few weeks.

I am sure my kids are a little excited (although they are too cool to admit it, but they like back to school as well.) They like a schedule, they like having purpose. Getting out of the house in the mornings together is fun and then coming back together talking over the day, the experiences and happenings w/ friends.

For Savannah it means ballet and dance again, everyday refining her God given talent and worshipping in a fresh way. Her dance teacher is leaving for Kenya soon and there is a new one on the scene. We know God sent us Courtney, and its going to be a great year. Lots of challenges I am sure but growth is inevitable.

Jacob will be seeking new friends as he is back at the high school here in Clarkston. It will be a whole new experience walking the halls with 1000 other kids.

For the store it means BUSY! We have an event every weekend. We will have a sale for the roundup, a huge retreat with 60 ladies at the Palouse Divide Lodge, then a booth at the fair. We will be receiving a ton of merchandise each week. We love the UpS and Fed Ex drivers. Its like Christmas when we get boxes of paper and accessories. Look for Autumn leaves and their new stamp line, great papers from Creative Imaginations, Daisy Buckets, Paper Salon, Queen and Co., Heidi Grace, Fiskars, Me and My Big Ideas, and much much more!

We are going to really push the envelope of creativity. Dont miss it!!