College hunting - the search begins

The college search has begun for Katie. We saw Stanford University when we were on vacation in California - what a beautiful campus. What kid wouldn't want to go there?
Katie has been leaning towards West Point or the Naval Academy and has been accepted into both of their leadership seminars this summer.
She is going to have a busy June!

We visited West Point this past Tuesday. It was an amazing experience!


The admissions office:


The room where we had our "briefing"




The students each had the opportunity to shadow a cadet through their classes and a meal - they had lunch with the cadets in the mess hall.

The parents got to have a question and answer session with a cadet, then go on a tour of the campus. Our parents' tour guide:




The cadets line up in formation before lunch in front of the mess hall
every Monday through Friday:




After lunch, we took some pictures with Katie - here she is with General Patton!




She really enjoyed her time there. I think that it will be hard to beat.

You're Amazing!

I love the Bruno Mars song "Just the Way You Are." The lyrics always make me happy. Especially if hear it in the car when I am on my way to work,

I go in with a big smile on my face . . .

I was inspired to make a scrapbook layout about each of my daughters. I made the pages very different, to reflect their distinct personalities:

First, is a page about Anne. You can't even believe how her eyes sparkle, especially when she laughs and smiles!

And then there is Katie. I have always admired her beauty,

especially her amazing and thick hair!

She has grown into a special young lady.

I am so blessed to have these 2 girls in my life.

And as always, thanks so much for stopping by my blog.

I really appreciate each and every visit!

Closer to Fine

My sister, Cathy, was 52 years old when she passed away in June of 2003. She just missed her 53rd birthday after battling ovarian cancer and it's treatment for almost 10 years. I have been going through a depression every since. I have learned to deal with the sadness and loss, and it has gotten so much better with the love and support of family and friends, but a day doesn't go by that I don't think of her. After her death, I steadily gained weight, and reached a plateau in the fall of last year. I even had to go on blood pressure medication to control my hypertension last year. I finally knew that I had to do something, so I decided to go on Jenny Craig, for my health, my happiness, and to be a good example for my daughters. It has been the best decision of my life. I have lost 34 pounds so far . . .

I have 5 more pounds to go to reach my goal weight!

This week's Scrapping the Music's song is "Closer to Fine" by the Indigo Girls. When I purchased those size 8 jeans, I had to do a scrapbook page about how amazing it felt.

If you feel inspired by this awesome song, go join in on the fun at http://www.scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/ .

My layout is based on a sketch by Jessica aka scrapbaby at the memory lane pa site on facebook. She has been making the most amazing sketches there.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Cathy!!!

Irish eyes are smiling

St Patrick's Day is almost here . . . it was my dad's favorite holiday! I made this page in loving memory of Clyde Owen Hand. He passed away when he was 70 years old from

a secondary leukemia, after surving colon cancer for 20 years.

He was a feisty and Irish, and definitely a fighter!

I created this layout for a the "darker side" challenge over at scrapbook.com. Celina always comes up with incredible and inspiring challenges - you should go check it out:

http:www.scrapbook.com/forums/showtipic.php?tid/1554131/

I used a sketch from my April issue of ScrapbooksEtc on page 113

entitled "Just Born" and the Lime Rickey kit from Basic Grey.

(gotta love those vibrant and dark colors!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Clyde!

Waiting for Anne

Jessica, aka "scrapbaby" is making the most awesome sketches at the memorylane pa site on Facebook. This is my take on this week's sketch!

I used one of my fav lines of paper - the Cosmo Cricket "early bird" line. The photo was taken in October of 2003, just before we traveled to China to meet our new daughter and sister, Anne. You can really see how happy and excited we all were!!!

Happy Birthday Private Owen!

My nephew, Owen, celebrated his 8th birthday last weekend. Ever since he saw the photos of his great- grandfather, Earl, (my mom's dad) during WWII, he has wanted to be in the military.

His birthday party reflected that wish, without a doubt!

Here he is getting ready for the party.

Private Anne is ready, too.

Sergeant Eric (Owen's dad) took them through some drills:

Attention!

At Ease.

Push ups:

And an obstacle course:

After all of that hard work, the kids were rewarded

with a piece of Owen's awesome birthday cake.

Happy 8th Birthday Owen!

We all had a GREAT time at your fun party.

the LUCKY ones

This week on Scrapping the Music, they are paying tribute to an inspiring movie, "The Blind Side." The movie's theme song, "Chances Are" by Five for Fighting is this week's featured STM song. And what a great song it is. You should go check them out - all of the design team really outdid themselves with their awesome pages!

http://www.scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/

I was inspired to make a page about my dear big sister, Cathy, who passed away some years ago from ovarian cancer, a sneaky and very terrible disease.

The photo is of my twin sister, Karen, and me with Cathy.

We are truly the lucky ones to have known her!!

I used sketch # 010211 by Suepup at scrapbook.com and my February Swirlydoos kit as a basis for my page.