SLOW DOWN....

SUMMER!!! Seems as if just yesterday it was May and now we are approaching the end of June already! And we have only gone camping one time...that is so sad!

In the wake of the Floods of 2008, I have seen utter devastation and destruction throughout all of Iowa....closed and broken highways, unbelievably long detours, destroyed businesses, residential areas, and sadly the loss of my brother in law's house as well. I am heading up a fundraiser on some of the scrappy sites that I am a member of and here is the info...

I am doing a little fundraiser for my brother in law who recently lost everything in the flood. Part of his house may be salvageable but he gets no FEMA assistance so it will be a very very long road with no flood insurance either.
Also if you would like to see some pictures of what is going on at his house, they are posted on my flickr acct...

RIGHT HERE

He just recently lost most of his belongings in the flood and it reaked havoc on the houe and it has to be totally redone. What really is sad is that right now he is not eligible for FEMA assistance because our county has not yet been determined a FEDERAL disaster area....just at the state level. I thought that we could really do something to help them out. They currently just got back into the house today and things are a complete disaster. I have pictures of the house under water, and going out this evening since the water has receded and taking pics of the damage and the belongings they lost.

But my point here....is I would LOVE to have you all chip in and help this family out. My questions to you are this.....
Would you be willing to donate $1, $2, or $5 or just whatever you feel comfortable with and I could get them some gift cards from places like Walmart or Lowe's so that they can get some of the essentials that they need?
Would you rather just donate something that you have or purchase something for them??
It's all up to you and what you would be willing or able to do. I have also posted this at a couple of my other fave sites and have been getting a tremendous response! I told him of what my out of state scrappy friends said and that you all wanted to help and he was in shock.......now that he has been to the house after the water is gone, he really got to see the extent of the damage. The floors are all warped and waved, the drywall is rotten and ALL of their beds are destroyed. He says the smell there has permeated everything that they own so they are not even sure if they will be able to keep the couch and a couple other things that were put up out of the water.
Just let me know if you are interested and how you would like to help and I can pm you my paypal addy or my snail mail right away!!

So if you are interested in helping out, just leave a comment stating so and I will get back to ya!! Make sure you leave me some sort of way to contact you as well.

Where do I start?

Been awhile since I blogged....sorry bout that!

We all just got home thisweekend from our mini vacations and a good time was had by all! Jason and Bman attended a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game and had the time of their lives!



I travelled 1290 miles ROUND TRIP to Tennessee this weekend to attend the First Annual Sisiversary scrapbooking event for Scrap in Style Tv. Soo overwhelmed with all the new faces to meet nd of course you know I am totally the shy type. I talked to soo many friendly faces and created a ton and RELAXED! I loved each and every minute of it and I am ready for Sisiversary 2009! For some ODD reason, I took no useable photos...just too busy soaking it all in and enjoying it all.

After all the flood waters have been receding, there is definitely a MESS left here in Iowa. My heart goes out to all the poor families that have lost their homes, including my brother in law.
And since those flood watersare going away here in Marengo, Bman got to play his VERY FIRST baseball game of the season! Usually the start the first week of june, but all have been canceleed so far because of rains and flooding. Soo happy to see him play and he did a stellar job of pitching!


I am in desperate need of taking photos of all the creations I made from Tennessee but that will have to come later....still soo way behind on the housework and laundry!

No time for chat....

off to Tennessee in the morning to meet some fabulous sisters and leaving this mess behind....all of eastern Iowa is a mess....it has been the most stressful day of my entire life and I am not sure what I will be returning home to on Sunday but there is NOTHING I can do to stop it!

I'll let the pics speak for now....

We are in the midst of the 500 year flood here in my hometown. We are still dry here in the house except for the basement and hoping that the darn river stays on the OTHER SIDE of the levy....





My bil is not soo lucky...water is all around his house and we still dont know if it has crested all the way that it will crest..




Not really nervous at this point that our house will be overtaken by water....unless the levy breaks and Lord knows we have seen that happen before, just not here. Will be anxiously awaiting that water to recede....that is after all the impending storms get by producing isolated amts up to 5 MORE INCHES....Seriously I think we have had enough!!

Picture overload...

That's all I have been doing lately...snapping photos. My computer is on overload with new pictures!






I did a fun little challenge over at Scraplove for the members to scrap a sketch from Pagemaps and four of the lvelies completed the challenge....so I thought that instead of the normal RAK, I would create a layout for each of the four that completed the challenge with their pictures! First one I got done is Jenny's (Zeldadog's) and her son is just tooo adorable NOT to scrap!

One down and three to go....next is Rebecca's (Mom2pigs) and I am almost finished with hers. Soo refreshing to scrap different people's pictures. I jut hope I do a good job and they are all happy with the end result!

On another scrappy note, SIX MORE DAYS till my big trip! I am really starting to get nervous....I don't do well with crowds and lots of new people to meet and I have to say I am a TAD on the 'freaking out' side, but all will be good. I will have a FABULOUS time, learn new things, make new friends, and create till the butt crack o dawn!

Treasured Scrapbooking is down....

Unfortunately some really bad technical issues are happening over at TreasuredScrapbooking.com. The site has been down now for a number of days and the owner, Leslie is really distraught over the whole sitaution and my heart really goes out to her! Fortunately the new DT has started a blog to keep you all updated as to what is going on. You can find that blog here....

TREASURED SCRAPBOOKING BLOG

Leslie has also put up her email in the event that you need to contact her for anything...I am definitely keeping her in my thoughts and hoping her site gets up and running very very soon!

so I will go ahead and share some creations that I have made using the Treasured Scrapbooking June Kit #1. This is my first month as a new DT member there, and I have to say that the mix of patterned papers in this kit is PERFECT!! I love the fact that Leslie has used several different manufacturers and has made it all mesh soo well!





This just might be the longest blog post in my history....camping, track and field day, Averee's Graduation, and upcoming baseball games for Bman has kept my camera very very busy!







And now for some very very sad news...my local scrapbook store, Reminisce is closing its' doors. It is a BIG shocker to me. I love that store and have been very dedicated to making sure most of my money spent on scrappy supplies goes to them. I am truly heartbroken so I guess now the search will start for a new store for me to frequent!

YaY for warmer weather....

and we have pictures to prove just that!



The sun feels awesome and we are soo enjoying the fact that we will have another nice day in store for us today!
And how bout a sneaky peek of the June kit creatin over at SCRAPLOVE?


SERIOUSLY have a ton of things on my to do list today and I am hoping everyone cooperates and I can get them all done! school is out in two short days, the pool is then open, my lil five year old is graduating from preschool, Track and Field Day on Monday....busy busy week! I need more than 24 hours in a day....how about you??