Senior Night

Monday night was Senior Night for Katie's field hockey team!  I can't even believe that this has come already!!!!!  I remember sitting through many senior nights, watching the parents and players cross the field, but this time it was us!  OMG!  I am getting old!!!!!!!  Well, I will be 55 on Friday.  Oh no . . . .

Here are some pictures that my sister, Karen, took from that night:

All of the seniors' names were in cups above the bleachers!

 Katie warming up - she is the goalie!

 Here we are crossing the field with Katie:

 A photo of all of seniors with their parents:

 Katie as goalie!!

 Here's Anne with my sister, Karen:

 Katie even got to play a little offense that night!!  Woohoo!!!!!!

A great memory for Katie!

Doubt

One of the amazing challenges at Scraps of Darkness
is called "Skeletons in the Closet" challenge.

One of their design team members, Lisa,  runs it, and is so creative in her thinking!!!  Her current challenge runs from September through November and is as follows:  WHO ARE YOU - WHEN NO ONE IS LOOKING? You must use a current self portrait and a creative form of journaling to explain yourself on your layout. And, if you use photo editing, you get "extra credit."
For my layout, I blurred my self portrait and made it black and white. 

My journaling reads: Behind this smiling face lies a veil of doubt. Can I still do it? Can I still be a good nurse and a good mom to Katie and Anne, a teen-ager and an 8-year old even though I am turning 55 this month?

What can I say, my birthday is at the end of this month
and I am feeling it, believe me!!!!

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And re:  The Scrapping the Music Anniverary challenge, I will be randomly picking a winner this weekend, and will post the winner here next Friday!

So stay tuned . . .

Happy 4th Anniversary to Scrapping the Music!

Scrapping the Music is celebrating it's 4 year anniversary! So, in order to make it a special celebration, we, the members of the design team, are holding a blog hop!

It's really easy to play along. In order to be eligible for a prize on each of our blogs, all you have to do is to leave a comment on that blog and become a follower, if you aren't one already.

In addition, this week's song is "Like a Star" by Corinne Bailey Rae, because it was Scrapping the Music's very first song. I can see why!  I love this song and the lyrics, and it inspired to make a layout about my sisters and me spending time at the beach.

So go check out STM at http://scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/

then the rest of the design team members' blogs as follows:

Jenn:  http://happy2scrap4life.blogspot.com

Yvonne:  http://yyam.blogspot.com

Frauke:  Scrapaholic 

Amy:  http://sparklinggnome.wordpress.com/

Sharon:     http://www.thatgirlfritchey.blogspot.com/  Oh yeah - that's me!!!!

Thank you for helping us make the 4th anniversary of STM such a great success!
(I will post who the winner is, so check back to find out.)

10 years since 9/11

My daughter, Katie, and I watched a special about the 9/11 attacks on the history channel last weekend. It stirred up many emotions in me, and afterwards,

I felt the need to make a scrapbook page about it. 

(I still have a headache & swollen eyes from crying.)
When my family and I visited Ground Zero a few years after the attacks, I was most affected by the story of "The Little Chapel That Stood." My sister, Karen, even bought me the children's

book written about it - by A.B. Curtiss.
My journaling reads as follows:
Throughout history, St. Paul's chapel has offered comfort and spiritual guidance. The chapel opened for worship on October 30, 1766 and is where the first president of the United States, George Washington, worshipped. The brownstone chapel survived new York's great fire in 1776. It is Manhattan's oldest public building in continuous use, and it is the only remaining colonial church. Over the years, St. Paul's Chapel sat in the shadow of the towering World Trade Center towers. The entrance of the chapel was directly across the street from the towers, not more than 50 yards away.
When terrorists attacked the towers resulting in their collapse on September 11, 2001, St. Paul's Chapel miraculously survived, virtually undamaged. It became known as

“The Little Chapel That Stood.”
It not only stood structurally, it stood spiritually. In the days, weeks, and months that followed the attacks, the chapel served as a relief center for the firefighters and rescue workers. The chapel provided workers with refuge, food, medical attention, space to rest, and a place to pray. The iron fence that surrounds the chapel served as a place for family members of missing victims to post photos and messages to their loved ones. St. Paul's Chapel was a gathering place for everyone who needed physical and emotional support following the worst terror attack in the history of this country.
As the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, St. Paul's Chapel is still a place were the memory of the victims of the attacks in honored. When you look at the altar inside the church, you look back at the faces of all of those whos lives were lost. Their photos remind us all of our terrible loss. The faces are of mothers, fathers, husbands & wives, and brothers & sisters. Many worked in the World Trade Center, but some went into the building while everyone else was trying to escape. That day, 2,753 people lost there lives in the World Trade Center. 343 of them were firefighters, 60 were police officers, and 8 were private emergency medical technicians and paramedics. The faces of these people are represented on the altar.
St. Paul's Chapel provides an island of peace, quiet, and serenity in the midst of turmoil. It has done this for 245 years! It stands as a quiet and compelling place in a chaotic world.

Concerts

We enjoyed seeing Maroon 5 at Musikfest this year with Katie.  It was a great concert, in spite of the rain.  We even saw my good friend from college and her husband there;

it was a nice surprise to run in to Sue and Paul!

Katie was so excited about seeing Maroon 5 and wasn't disappointed by their performance.  She absolutely loved the show!  They sang every single one of their hits.  And it was great to get to spend that time with her, knowing that it will probably be our last summer together before she
goes off to college.

Here are some pics from that rainy evening in August taken

with my cell phone(no cameras were allowed):

And here are some I found on the Internet that were taken that night, too.

 After that concert, we learned that "Big Time Rush," was coming to the Allentown Fair.  Big Time Rush is a group of four young guys who sing and star in a big TV hit on the Nickelodeon channel. Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow, Carlos Pena and Logan Henderson are the four boys who make up Big Time Rush.  (The show kind of reminds me of the old TV show, "The Monkees" from back in the 60's/70's.  My sister, Karen, and I LOVED that show - I remember we used to pretend that we were the Monkees with our girlfriends.)

 

So . . . John decided that it would be a great idea to take Anne to see Big Time Rush at the fair.  We went Sunday night, September 4th, and had such an amazing time!!  It was heartwarming seeing Anne so happy and absolutely loving the concert - it was worth every single penny we spent. 

These pics were taken with my cell phone:

 We were not allowed to bring cameras into the stadium, so here are some photos I found of Big Time Rush performing at the Allentown Fair on the Internet:

 And since we couldn't get good shots of Anne cheering and singing along,

we did a little re-enactment yesterday:

WooooooHoooooooo!!!!!!

Anne's very first concert was a big success.

This concert reminded John and I of the 'NSYNC concert that we attended at Veterans Stadium in July, 2000, only on a much smaller scale.  Katie was 6 years old at the time.  My sister, Karen, went with us, and we thought our hearing would never be the same again. 

The 'NSYNC's fans' screaming and screeching was deafening!

Bye, Bye, Bye . . .

The Corn Roast

My husband's family has an annual reunion every year on the second Saturday of August.  His family has been doing this for many, many years!  They call it the "Corn Roast" because they used to roast corn over an open fire in a pit the entire day.  The corn preparation has evolved to boiling it in large pots, the conventional, way, but no matter, it's still delicious! 
Here are some pictures that I took this year.

I have been married to John for 21 years and have enjoyed 20 corn roasts with him.  We only missed one, the year we moved from West Virginia to Pennsylvania.  A lot of the traditions have stayed the same, like the balloon toss and the candy hunt!

The kids really enjoyed the candy hunt, but the adults coach their kids to go for the "right" candy, so that they can enjoy it, too.

The best part for me, is seeing the youngest members

of the family grow up and meeting the newest members . . .

So Adorable!

And cute!

 And playing games:  I love the vintage buttons that John's aunt brings every year.  I may have to steal some for my scrapbook pages next year.

Here is a layout that I created using the pictures of Charlotte that I took during the rain shower.  she LOVED the rain, the mud, and the puddles.

I used a sketch from a site called Little Shop of Sketches.  Their blog is as follows:  http://littleshopofsketches.wordpress.com/ 
The sketch (sketch #92) that I used, was designed by Ashley: 

Thanks so much, Ashley!  If you feel inspired by her awesome sketch,

please join in the fun at their ning site:  http://littleshopofsketches.ning.com/

Have a great Sunday everyone!!