Our newest prompt

over at THe CrEatiVe TyPe is all about stamps!!!  yup, time to pull out those foam stamps or rubber stamps that you haven't used in ages and dip them in some ink or paint!  that's what i did for the title of my page.  i used to use these foam letter stamps sooo much... but its been years i think since i last did.  but i think it was just right for this page about Mathea.

and how perfect is this Rusty Pickle paper??  she loves pirates, so i thought it would fit her just right. :D
please come play along with us!  and even just stop by if you haven't seen our new site!

we're sooo excited!!

in the very near future im gonna be a mum... a puppy mum that is!! :D yup, you heard right. chris and i have decided that its time for us to get a puppy. and everything fell into place. our friend from the play, jess has two boxers that she just bred for the first time. and now she's got 7 little baby boxer puppies. and boxers are chris' favorite breed....
we saw the pictures on facebook that jess posted soon after her puppies were born... and one little guy pretty much said "hi, i should be yours!"
and we fell in love.

we went to see him for the first time a week and a half ago. he is 3 weeks old in these pictures.


he is a white boxer with a little brown patch over his left eye. we are going to call him Spencer. :D

so i've been doing lots of reading up on boxers and puppies in general. i've decided that i am going to train him using hand signals, just like you would if the dog was deaf. i have a natural affinity for signs being an ASL (american sign language) interpreter, and want to incorporate it into this part of my life too.

things im looking forward to:

• having a faithful companion and friend to be with me so i'm not alone
  
• training my puppy
• calling him "lil' sir"
  
• taking him to play in the new dog park that was just added to our neighborhood
  
• being a "mum"
  

i'm sure there will MANY more pictures of this precious little man in the future. i'm sooo excited that we've "decided to start our family..."
eek!! i'm a happy girl.

my favorites

here are some of my favorite shots from my photoshoot that i did with my life-long friend tracy and her husband jason. it was a pleasure to work with them, and i hope they enjoy these as much as i do!!

i can't wait to take pictures of the little one when she enters the world. i am so excited to meet her!! the full album of edited images can be seen HERE if you'd like to see more. :D

a photographer at work

last sunday i drove to seattle and met up with my life-long friend Tracy and her husband Jason to take maternity pictures for them. they're welcoming a little baby girl into their lives in just 6 short weeks. while i was taking shots of tracy, jason was behind us taking pictures of me "in action." its fun to see the process from another perspective!

i will be sharing the pictures from that shoot hopefully within the next few days, but in the meantime, here is a little sneak peek for you!

a goal achieved

as i mentioned HERE i have reached my half-way mark with my class and as a reward my dad bought me a new laptop!!  chris and i went up to summerland, BC to visit my family and my dad had the laptop waiting there for me.
so here she is!!! 

i am sooo loving it already.  been getting lots of work done on my course and transfering all my files and feeling "at home" on my own computer.  adding my fonts, music and pictures is so much fun!!

and Windows 7??   yeah... it was my idea.  ;)  and its totally brilliant!!

words with meaning...

that's the theme for our first prompt over at our new site for THe CrEatiVe TyPe and this is the page i created for it.

this page is about something that chris and i always say to each other... "love you to life." because our love is forever... no "death" involved. ;) this saying is even engraved in chris' wedding ring. its special to us.

please come play along with us!!

yup, you heard right!! this is sooo exciting for me. :) a little while ago i took over as the moderator/organizer of the challenge blog that i've been on for close to two years now. after some discussion with the rest of the ladies on the team, we decided to move our blog to a ning.com site.

so please!! come take a peek at our new site: THe CrEatiVe TyPE

there are some fantastic features that we can offer now... we've got a forum, a chat feature, and a gallery for those who play along to add their pages. come explore!!

and look for a new prompt and our first challenge over at our new site next wednesday!!
i'm sooo excited about this! its nice to see something that you've worked hard on for so long come into existence.

my half-way mark

back at the end of February after a conversation with my dad, i picked an end date for my class work... June 1st. so from that day to the first of june we calculated the half-way mark and planned out how many quizzes i would need to have done by then. today is that day!!


i am happy to announce that i am right on schedule (and half a lesson ahead)!!! i am sooo close to being finished with my class and that much closer to being a Medical Transcriptionist!!!

as a reward for reaching my halfway point and having the quizzes completed my dad is getting me a laptop! this will bring me into our century, technology wise, and will be just perfect for when i start my new career!

thank you dad for all your support.
this was just the push i needed.
<3

Ago...

One hour ago.... i was calling my friend for a ride to work.
Three hours ago... i was hitting snooze on my alarm even though i knew i wouldn't be able to get back to sleep.
Six hours ago... i was sleepily telling my husband i love him as he heads off for his 3rd day at his new job.
Twelve hours ago... chris and i were in bed wrapped in each others arms talking about puppies and our plans for the future.
Twenty-four hours ago... i was reading e-mails from design team members and working on an exciting new announcement!!
Three days ago... i was working like crazy on my class work to catch up from a weekend of company and good times.
A week ago... i was celebrating my husband's new full-time job and editing pictures from a photo shoot.
A month ago... i was learning new tricks on picnik.com
Six months ago... i wasn't blogging but i was singing karaoke two times a week!
A year ago... Chris and i spent a wonderful weekend together on whidbey island and took lots of pictures.
Three years ago... i was planning my wedding to the most amazing man.
Five years ago... i was pioneering, working in a scrapbooking store (swoon), and feeling like i would never fall in love.
Ten years ago... i was struggling to be the best big sister i knew how to be.
Twenty years ago... my mum, my little brother and i struck out to make a new life for ourselves.
Thirty years ago... a woman was struggling to get pregnant and have a baby of her own... a few years later i was born.

a sweet little family

last weekend i got together with my cousin hannah (the one who does my hair!!) and took family pictures for her little family. her son aiden is 3 years old now and pretty much LOVES the camera! he kept trying out all these little poses. too cute.

these are some of my favorites from the shoot.

its true love

this handsome man of mine has made me a garbage truck driver's wife... and i couldn't be happier!! we have been struggling for some time finding chris a full-time job. and by "for some time" i mean a year and a half. he was laid off from his job in october of 2008 and in the interim has been substitute school bus driving, which is at max 4 hours a day during the school week/year. and because of that title "substitute" we were unable to qualify for a mortgage to buy our house last summer when we first moved in. we are living in it, but paying rent to the homeowners until we could qualify.
hopefully with the news of the new full time job for my hubs that we got yesterday, things can finally fall into place for us!!!
i am so proud of this man. proud to call him my husband and proud to be his wife.

these years we've spent together have been a struggle, but i would not trade them for the world. they have taught me so much about love and life and what marriage really means. this man is my soul mate, my best of friend, and my biggest reason to smile!

MARCH 2010: i fondly remembered my husband's sweet proposal to me on the 3-year anniversary of that day, went in service with my mum, took photos of myself wearing a beautiful scarf i got as a gift, i entered a giveaway for a fabulous camera, almost quit our play 3 times, chris made me eggs Benedict at home (my favorite breakfast!), fell off the stage backwards at the theater, found an artist from my childhood and reveled in memories, made plans for my first maternity shoot, tried to help my husband find a new job, changed my hair again, did some more digi scrapbook pages, continued to learn and develop my editing skills on picnik.com, listened to this song over and over, saw spring come to my backyard, took family pictures for my cousin hannah and her sweet little family, dealt with drama in the best way i could, ate organic eggs, borrowed my friend marta's camera and fell in love with her prime lens, visited with my mum a bunch, celebrated the Memorial of Christ's death, ate dinner with friends a lot, progressed even further in my medical transcription course, had food taste really weird to me most of the time, found inspiration in this video, drank way too much coffee, lost our main lead singer in the play, fought with money and our plans for the future. what a month!!