Personal journey updated

For those of you following my husbands health, we had another change today.   He received his first dose of chemotherapy today.  This is a very new drug for the treatment of melanoma.  It is called Ipilimumab and he will receive 4 doses, 3 weeks apart.  We are optimists and are praying that this treatment has a good effect.  We'll just have to keep praying and hope for the best.

Remembering on Memorial Day

Today, I'm thinking of all our military members who have given their all so that we can be free.  I'm also thinking of our heroes currently serving to keep us free.

I have many family members who have served and are still serving in the military.  Currently serving are the grandsons that are on active duty.  My husband, 2 brothers, son, uncles and cousins have served in the military.

Remember to thank all of them for our freedom and always stand and put your had over your heart when you see the flag.  Many have fought hard for that flag and we need to respect it and them.

I've chosen this day to make hero cards to send to our deployed troops.

This sentiment is a digi from Operation Write Home.  The embossed stars are made with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The red strip was crimped with my Marvy Corro-gater.  The gold stars are Class A'Peels stickers.

Thank you, Hero

If you are here for the OWH bloghop,

please scroll down to yesterday's post.

This card was inspired by Cre8tive Girls blog on the OWH bloghop.  I embossed the blue background with a Starry Night embossing folder from Craft Concepts.  I ran the red strip of cardstock through my crimper.  I mounted them on gold cardstock and onto a white base card. 

The sentiment is a digi from Operation Write Home and is mounted on gold cardstock and popped with dimensional tape.  The stars are stickers by Class A'Peels.

OWH Memorial Day Bloghop

Welcome to Operation Write Home's Memorial Day Bloghop.  Hopefully, you arrived here from Sheila's blog, 2 Paw Prints.  This bloghop is the 2nd anniversary of my joining the Operation Write Home group of card makers.  It was the Memorial Day Bloghop in 2009 that got me started making cards for our deployed heroes.

There is always a great need for our deployed heroes to have 'missing you' cards to send to their loved ones at home.  I hope this one brings a smile to some faces.

The dachshund stamp is from Cowtown, the missing you stamp is from Lockhart Stamp Co. and the other sentiment is a clear stamp from Michaels.  Background paper is by Provo Craft.  I used Memories brown ink for the stamps.  It is a good match for my red smooth dachshund, Tex.

To continue the bloghop, hop on over to

Sherry's blog  Create With Me

Try a new technique

Our challenge this week on the Stars & Stamps blog is to try a new technique.    There was a tutorial in the same blog on April 5, 2011 and making a pinwheel card.  I never got around to trying it, so here's my first attempt.  I just used some leftover scraps and it turned out pretty good and patriotic.  I added the God Bless America sentiment and put miss you in the center of pinwheel.

Come back tomorrow morning for the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Bloghop.  All cards will be missing you cards.

Personal journey updated

Thank you to everyone for their prayers and good wishes.  I brought my husband home from the hospital last evening.  We both feel much better and got some sleep.  He's taking pain pills and resting, but feeling much stronger than yesterday.  He'll just take it easy until he sees the oncologist on Tuesday.

Personal journey

Yesterday was a long day.  My husband had a liver biopsy yesterday morning.  Things seemed to go well, until the pain started in the afternoon.  I called back to the doctor and was told to take him to emergency room, which I did.

After monitoring and tests, he was admitted to hospital for observation.  This morning, he has stabilized and will be returning home this afternoon.  He apparently had internal bleeding from the liver, but it has stopped and his pain is nearly gone.

We're still taking things one day at a time.

Loss of mojo

Once again, my personal life is interfering with my card making mojo.  It's just hard to create card designs when my thoughts are elsewhere.

Tomorrow, my husband is having his second liver biopsy.  The oncologist said the first one showed that it is cancer, but was not definitive in identifying type.  It looked like melanoma under microscope, but stain was inconclusive.  They need this second needle biopsy to confirm diagnosis so treatment can begin.  The prayers are all we have to guide us through this difficult time.

Great grandpa

Armed Forces Day

I made these cards this weekend in honor of both Armed Forces Day and the upcoming Memorial Day.  At these times, we reflect on our military and how they have done their best to preserve our freedom.  We cherish our freedom and are grateful for the service of many of our citizens who have given their lives in keeping us free.

We also thank those who are still serving today to help keep our country free.  We need you and salute you for your service.  You are truly our heroes.

Appreciate our blessings

I recently received this email and feel it is worth sharing.

A nice thought about appreciating our blessings!

Lisa Beamer on Good Morning America - If you remember, she's the wife of  Todd Beamer who said 'Let's Roll!' and helped take down the plane over Pennnsylvania that was heading for Washington DC back on 9/11.

She said it's the little things that she misses most about Todd, such as
hearing the garage door open as he came home, and her children running to meet him. She's now the Mom of a beautiful little girl, Mary.

Lisa recalled this story:
"I had a very special teacher in high school many years ago whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack. About a week after his death, she shared some of her insight with a classroom of students. As the late afternoon sunlight came streaming in through the classroom windows and the class was nearly over, she moved a few things aside on the edge of her desk and sat down there.

With a gentle look of reflection on her face, she paused and said, "Class is over, I would like to share with all of you, a thought that is unrelated to class, but which I feel is very important. Each of us is put here on earth to learn, share, love, appreciate and give of ourselves.   None of us knows when this fantastic experience will end.   It can be taken away at any moment."

Perhaps this is the powers way of telling us that we must make the most out of every single day. Her eyes, beginning to water, she went on, "So I would like you all to make me a promise.   From now on, on your way to school, or on your way home, find something beautiful to notice.

It doesn't have to be something you see, it could be a scent, perhaps of freshly baked bread wafting out of someone's house, or it could be the sound of the breeze slightly rustling the leaves in the trees, or the way the morning light catches one autumn leaf as it falls gently to the ground. Please look for these things, and cherish them.  For, although it may sound trite to some, these things are the "stuff" of life. The little things we are put here on earth to enjoy. The things we often take for granted."   The class was completely quiet.

We all picked up our books and filed out of the room silently. That afternoon, I noticed more things on my way home from school than I had that whole semester. Every once in a while, I think of that teacher and remember what an impression she made on all of us, and I try to appreciate all of those things that sometimes we all overlook.

Take notice of something special you see on your lunch hour today. Go barefoot. Or walk on the beach at sunset. Stop off on the way home tonight to get a double dip ice cream cone. For as we get older, it is not the things we did that we often regret, but the things we didn't do.

If you like this, please pass it on to a friend, if not just delete it and go on with your life! Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
HAVE A GREAT DAY

This is what I saw today in my neighbor's yard: