Top Ten Things I Am Thankful For

At this time of the year as I reflect on my life, the past year, the upcoming year, the holidays and all the hustle and bustle to come, I feel so blessed. How is it that someone so imperfect as I, can have so much. I know that it is because of my loving Heavenly Father. So hear is my top ten things I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving Day. Of course the list could go on and on, but these are the most important to me.
1. The gospel.
2. My Savior Jesus Christ.
3. Matt (hottest guy on the planet).
4. My 3 beautiful, awesome, fun, loving children.
5. Supportive and loving parents.
6. My house. We may not own it, and it may be in Erie in a month, but it is HOME.
7. Late night tuck ins and sneaking a kiss from my kids.
8. A free country-thanks to all the troops and brave people who chose to defend this country.
9. Matt's job
10. Unconditional love from my family, friends and Heavenly Father

Thank you friends, family, and especially my true love, Matt. You all have made some sort of difference in my life, big or small. I love you and appreciate you all. I wish you joy, happiness and health this holiday season.

Love,
Michelle

Shabby Creations- My New Blogger Business

As many of you know I have been building blog templates and learning a little about HTML coding.With a lot of help from Matt, I have started my new little blogger business designing blog templates and headers. I have already been busy completing new orders for interested bloggers. It's been a lot of fun. Check out the new blog business site at SHABBY CREATIONS
The blog site is pretty bare bones and still a work in progress, but I wanted to get it up and going. I want to thank you all who have allowed me to give your blog a face lift and those of you who have sent me referrals. You have been great.

SHOOT Me Now!

It's official. We are moving to Erie, Pennsylvania. If I had to make a list of the WORST places in the U.S. to live, Erie would be at the very top...if not the top. It's a good thing I love my husband soooooo much and that it is only for 6 months, because in another situation, this could be grounds for divorce. (Matt, I'm justing kidding, you know I love you to death!) For those of you who don't know much...or anything about Erie, it's a small city (100,000 people) on the very very north western tip of Pennsylvania. They are known for their brutal lake effect winters and Splash Lagoon indoor water park(many of you Clevelanders may have been their). It is an old city with not a lot of growth (NO growth)...except for us, and an average winter temp. of 28 degrees. Should be a good time for a SAHM with three small kids in the winter. Nothing to do but potty train two little boys.
O.K. now that I have released all the negative feelings I have about this move, I promise not to complain about it anymore (except to Matt). In all reality, it is just another great adventure in our lives. No matter where we go or what we do, we have a great family and always seem to make great memories wherever we are. I am already looking forward the following rotation move in June. Maybe Huntington Beach?! Wouldn't that be great.
Any condolences appreciated.

I'm Finally Ending My Affair......With Candy!

Dear Candy,

I never thought I could one day be writing you these words. At one time my heart was so filled with love for you. But, it's over. Our relationship just hasn't been working for a while, and now, this is it. I'm leaving you for a healthier life style.
You are a cheater! The truth is there's nothing more you can say to make things better. I know about your secret affair with weight gain. You say you two are not seeing each other anymore, but I just don't believe it. You say you can live without weight gain, and I've heard that weight gain can live without you, but I know that's simply not true.
I know, I've tried breaking up before, and I've always come back, but that's because I couldn't find the right food to move on with. What I want is a food that's makes me strong and healthy, one that increases energy and burns more calories. I have found just that.
So this is it! Good-bye. I know you'll do fine without me; you always have. I'm sure there'll be someone who'll find you to be tasty and satisfying. It just won't be me.

Sincerely,

Michelle

hAllOwEen FuN!

Just wanted to post some pictures of the kids on Halloween night. They had a lot of fun dressing up and trick-o-treating. They filled their buckets up to the top and then had fun dumping them out to check out the goods at home. Hopefully they can sleep well tonight. They all had about 10 lbs. of candy to eat right before bed, so I'm sure they have sugar running through their veins. Good times!

Creating Blog Templates

I have been wondering for sometime now how to make a cute blog background and how to change the template to make it look a little more like me (my style). I see others with cute backgrounds and want my own, however, it's not that easy. So I have started playing around with my blog template and learning all about HTML coding. This stuff is HARD. Anyways, after many hours of reading, experimenting, and playing around I have figured out a little bit. I can now easily change the background and wrapper color (that is the black part of this blog). So I have been tossing around the idea of starting a small business of creating cute blogs for people. What do you think? Is there a market out there for this stuff? Check out my link to my flickr site www.flickr.com/photos/maniacmom/
These are all blog templates I have created. I have included a few sample pictures in this post too. Let me know if you want one and I'll e-mail you the template. Or if you have a copy of a background you like, just e-mail it to me. If enough people are interested, maybe I'll start a little design blog business. I figure word of mouth is the best advertisement, so if others seem interested let me know.

Autumn Greetings

I've been having a lot of fun with photoshop and Elements. Slowly but surely I am figuring out new ways to play with and manipulate photos and graphics. I think my next step is getting a decent camera. But, I make do with what we have and fall is a great time to take fun pictures. These are some pictures and my creation from Morton Arboretum here in Chicago today. The kids and I spent a lot of time enjoying the leaves and out doors. It is a toss up as to whether I like summer or autumn better, but I think right now fall is my favorite.

Oh KIDS!

So Lily's teacher walked her out to our car this afternoon and wanted to tell me a cute/funny story about a conversation between Lily and another little boy in her class. It went like this:
Hi, what's your name?

Lily.

Hi Lily, I'm Ryan. Do you want to be my friend?

No, not today, maybe next week.

I guess I thought we had taught her to be nice and friendly to everyone. I am noticing lately she has become a little picky with her friends and not exactly "nice" to the people she is not too fond of. I am glad the teacher thought this conversation was "cute" and that Lily said it in the nicest way possible. We have had to have the talk about how Heavenly Father created all of us and that we are all His children. She has been noticing the differences in people's skin, hair color, and languages. She has been asking a lot of thoughtful questions regarding different people. I am hoping that we are responding and explaining things to her so that she will one day learn to respect and understand all types of cultures, races, handicaps and religions.

Then, yesterday we were at the Aquarium, and we saw a couple of Muslim women. They of course had all black on and their heads and were completely covered except for their eyes. Jack stopped about 2 feet away and stared with horror. I was praying and hoping he didn't start screaming and crying right there in front of them. Halloween has scared my kids a bit, and lately they are afraid to even go into WalMart in case there are stones (skeletons) displayed. I can only imagine what was going through Jack's mind when he saw this totally veiled women in all black. Luckily, he waited until I pulled him away to say, "mommy, what's that?" Bless their little hearts as they see and learn new things in this big world.