Bellus

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our family, her name is Bellus. If you have been reading this you know that we have been searching for a cat for about 2 months now. We have been looking for an Egyptian Mau or a Bengal. Well Don and I went to PetSmart on Valentine's Day just to see if they had any cats left over from their National Adoption Weekend. And yes they did! Bellus was the third cat that we looked at and when we saw the markings on her legs, head and belly we just knew she had to have some Bengal in her. (Sorry for the picture with the white eyes, she has the most beautiful green eyes.) She was so cute and lovable that we said "We'll take her!" A few hours later, after buying everything you need for a house cat we were on our way home with Bellus.

Actually her name that the Shelter had given her was Turnip but my son didn't like that name. He found Bellus, which means beautiful in Latin. She's to sophisticated to have a name like Turnip!

We were a little nervous about she and Max, our Lab, getting along, but no worries at all! They get along very well. No dog chasing a cat yet!! She has been sleeping in our son's room for the last two nights and she pretty much follows him throughout the house. She is so cute.

We just love have Bellus in our family!!

Relay for Life

We had our Relay for Life Kick-Off last night. It was held at the Nazarene Church here in town. Don and I are on the Planning Committee plus Don is heading up the Food Committee. So we were not going to be a Team Captains this year but some people who were there last night asked if they could be on Don's team this year, so guess who is team captains again this year! We enjoy doing it, it is just a lot of work.

We were discouraged last year since we were not able to raise very much money. I think we had the lowest amount raised. How embarrassing. So this year we are starting early, like I am beginning today! Cellular Recycler is teaming up with the American Cancer Society to donate money for old cell phones. I have ordered all of the necessary materials to collect the old/unused cell phones and I am going to announce today in church for people to begin collecting their old cell phones and to bring them in to me. Anything little thing can help.

Both of our families have been affected by this terrible thing called cancer. I don't think there is a person out there who hasn't had at least one person in their family affected by this. This fund raiser then is very important to us. Maybe some day with the help of all this money being raised for research, they will finally find a cure.

If you would like to help find a cure, be sure to check out the American Cancer Society's website to find out what you can do.

Living Water Academy of the Plains

We are starting up a new Christian academy here in Yuma. It is called Living Water Academy of the Plains. It is very exciting to think that there will be a classical based academy here in our community. We are trying to get everything finished up to begin classes in August of this year.

We will follow the Logos School from Idaho. Go to their website to find out more about this awesome school. We are going to strive very hard to make our school just as great as that school.

If you have any questions just leave a comment or email me.

It's cold outside and on the inside

We are in a complete freeze here in Northeast Colorado as is much of the plains, and it is coming into the Midwest. We have kept the a fire in our fireplace for the last 24 hours.

This is how my creativity is right now, in a complete freeze. Nothing is coming to mind. I have no desire to go into my scrap room. It just feels like my scrap room is so far away from my family. It feels very lonely down there. At first I blamed it on my grief over the loss of my mother-in-law, but now I'm not sure. I think it could be some insecurities coming on too. Maybe when the weather outside gets a little better maybe so will my desire to be creative.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Bengals, Egyptian Maus or Mixed Breeds

We are in the beginning stages of looking for a cat. A cat that wold be an indoor pet. We need one that would be a good lover. One that would love you and enjoy being a part of the family. One that would get along with Max, our Labrador. So we have been looking at 2 different breeds online. These are the two that my son would like to have. One is the Bengal and the other is an Egyptian Mau. Both of these are very expensive breeds, so I am thinking we just need to adopt one from a pound or from Pet Smart, some place like that. We have searched and searched the internet but nothing so far. I have emailed 3 or 4 catteries but no one has any kittens yet. My son is so excited and just can't wait to get a cat. I think a mixed breed. Would be just fine and a whole lot cheaper. Well we'll just have to wait and see.

My Mother-in-Law, Joan

This lovely lady was my mother-in-law, Joan Smith (Joanne). Unfortunately she had a stroke on Dec 25, and passed away on Dec 27, 2010. The Christmas and New Year holidays took on a whole new feeling. While the rest of the world was celebrating we were in shock and in mourning. It was hard to read all of my favorite blogs and hear them talk about what a wonderful time they had and tell of their New Year's resolutions. All of that did not seem to matter this year.

We spent the first week of 2011 driving back to Indiana for a memorial service with all of our family. It was wonderful seeing everyone but also bittersweet.

The memorial we had here in Colorado, at our church, Yuma Christian Church, was a celebration. We celebrated her life and her love for all the people who had come to know her as "Grandma". The church was packed with standing room only. Some came because they wanted to honor her and others came to honor her son, my husband, Don. It was a wonderful service.

This picture is of her at her favorite places in all of the world, Estes Park, Colorado, at her favorite restaurant, Nick's Steak House, and her favorite hotel, Deer Crest Resort. She and her husband used to stay here when they would vacation in Estes Park.

She will be forever loved and missed. (Our home seems way to big now.) But we have the assurance of knowing that we will be reunited with her and all of our loved ones that have gone on before us. We all will meet in our Father's House.

For all of you who are out there that sent cards or flowers or even sent up a prayer for our family, we just want to say thank you for everything.

Thanks for visiting with me today.

You Tube

December was a complete roller coaster of a month. I will post more on that as time goes by. I'm not really ready to talk about everything that has happened. But until then here is a you tubes that I would like for you to look at. On Sunday December 26 my son presented his first communion and offering devotions at church. Unfortunately my husband and I were not able to be there. (When I explain more about Dec you will understand why.) A friend of ours took a video of them and posted them on you tube so that we could see him. His dad and I are very proud of him. I hope you not only enjoy the video but that you will enjoy his message.
Sorry but I'm not able to get the video to upload, so I hope you will go to You Tube and search the title Two videos will come up, please look at both of them.
Thanks for visiting with me today.
">"Sam Smith Devotions" .
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1-7-11 Update - I am now home on my own computer and I was able to download the two videos that I was talking about. I hope you enjoy.

PSA Essentials

This is a card that I made for PSA Essentials. I used their Peel & Stick stamps to stamp the Christmas tree and the saying on the inside and also the border around these. If you would like to find out more about their stamps go to their website here.

Beautiful Hazel Eyes

My son took a picture of his own eye. Sometimes he gets very artsy with the camera. He wanted to take the pic to place on his computer. When I saw the pics I really loved them. So I thought I'd share the pictures of my son's beautiful eyes.

We always have thought that his eyes were beautiful. When he was a baby they were a very pretty shade of blue and as he grew older they turned into what you see here. His eye lashes are so long and beautiful too. When he was about 5 or 6 we caught him cutting his eye lashes. We were so freaked out that he would take scissors up that close to his eyes but also because he cut his gorgeous eye lashes. He didn't like them being so long because he thought they looked like girl's lashes. But all is well, I guess they grew back because they are still gorgeous.

I loved pictures of hands, eyes, arms, feet, etc., of your loved ones. They in them self tell a story. I once did a page of a picture of Sam's foot. My husband had told me to just throw away the picture (it had been taken by mistake). I looked at the picture and realized that his foot would soon be bigger and that little baby foot would be gone. So I saved the picture and love the page that I did for it.

Well I hope you enjoy!

Thanksgiving Feast

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

We had a very lazy day Thursday, we woke up and ate, we laid around then ate, then more laying around and more eating.

We didn't have anyone over to share in our Thanksgiving feast, so we had the whole turkey to ourselves. We've been eating turkey sandwiches ever since. ;)

Being so far from our families the holiday feeling sometimes isn't there. Don tries to invite people over, those who also don't have family in town. It does help to get that holiday feeling. But this year we didn't start inviting until it was a little to late. Really it turned out okay because we all got some much needed rest.