I think alot of times we all focus on the negatives in our lives way too much. I know I have..alot lately. Not that I have a horrid life but this past year could have been much better. Most especially this past 4 months when my hubby was laid off of work. Let's face it...getting laid off work just a few days after Thanksgiving last year was a pretty big blow for us. We were already strapped finanacially (working on getting caught up on alot of our bills) and my Grandfather had been living with us until from August to October.

The no job situation was 2fold for me...you see...he does power line construction and works away from home and is gone alot...much like a truck driver's wife. So from my perspective...we now have no income and I have my hubby here daily with me...which is something I was not used to. I am used to being commander in chief much of the time here at home all of a sudden...I have to remember that he is here and defer to him as to not hurt his feelings. Believe me...it was not smooth sailing for us all the time. So...again I remind you...I was not always in the "glass half full" frame of mind everyday. But then something makes you stop dead in your tracks and re-evaluate. Some people call in karma. I call it faith. Faith is what you have that keeps you going. Sometimes faith is all you have and you can only prove you have it when times get tough. Over these past few months I have really had the story of Job in my mind. A man who had everything and as a test of faith it was all taken away. Because he maintained his faith and love for the Lord it was all restored. God does not promise that we will be wealthy or powerful but that if we will have faith and trust in Him, He will provide for us.

One of our troubles that we have had has been our dryer. It was 20+ years old. About 6 months ago the dryer belt that turned the drum broke...more like dry rotted..lol. I was in tears. It was a Saturday afternoon...where in the world were we gonna get a belt. And because this was when hubby had his job...he was leaving Sunday afternoon and if I could find one I was be waiting all week for him to put it on. So me being very pitiful and feeling sorry for myself plopped down on the sofa and just said, "Dear Lord, please help me with my dryer. I just don't know what to do." And no it was not any head bowing, folded hands in prayer...just a lifting up and a poor pitiful request from a desperate housewife. A couple of hours later hubby hauls our trash off as we don't have trash pickup here. As he was dumping our trash, a man drives up and is throwing away a dryer. And it's the same brand as ours. He asks the man if he cares if he checks to see if the belt will fit our dryer before he puts it in the big dumpter. PERFECT MATCH!!!!!! You cannot tell me that prayer was not answered..ever!

Fast forward to January. The dryer is possessed. We turn it on to dry...it stops a couple of minutes later. We turn it on...it goes off. Heating element is working...breakers not flipped in the house. EX-husband is a repairman and comes over and helps us clean out 20 years of dust and random lint out of it. Works like a charm again.

This past weekend we notice a felt piece coming apart from the back of the tub.....I mean really...what else. So before I end up w/o a dryer as it seems this one really wants to die...I call my ex. His parents sell furniture and appliances to price a dryer. My lucky day. He as a used one he just put out for $125.00. I offer him my dryer for parts and a hundred. He takes it and delivers it for me yesterday. I say I was lucky...but I firmly believe God led the way to the new/old dryer. And the funny part is that the ex told me that the lady that got rid of it...apparently just wanted a new dryer....he had to do no repairs on it.

So...VOILA! The Awesome dryer!!!! Simple but effective.

Ugghhhhh!!! I have had a problem with insomnia for years now...but it just seems here lately that it has kicked into high gear. I don't know if it is because I don't have the worry of taking my daughter to school at the moment and my grandfather here or what. I was wide awake until 5 am this morning. I mean I was tired but not sleepy. This has been the pattern for me for the past week or so...not being able to fall asleep until 3 or 4 in the morning. Then I am sooo tired during the day I can't hardly function but yet I don't want to nap because I want to sleep at night. I feel like a baby with it's days and nights mixed up. It's almost 3:30 now and I know I am going to have to take a nap or I am just going to crash...So does anyone out there have any home rememdies....we don't have insurance at the moment for a dr. visit due to the hubby having been laid off work for 4 months (he just went back to work) and we don't know when we will get any again. I am willing to try "almost" anything.

Well enough of my whining, huh? I seem to have lost my scrapping mojo so I turned to something pretty straightforward to work on, my Project 365 pages. I do feel a sense of accomplishment and since these pages will face each other I just mirrorred the template. If the design works...why not use it twice, yeah?

Supplies Used

DJB Gimme Space Font

Basic Black Alpha by Melissa Bennett

Life is Good Wordart and Papers from Weeds and Wildflowers

Template by Cindy Schneider

(Clicking on the photos will enlarge if you want to read the journaling)

So blogger hates me today or either it's a sign I didn't need to make that

big a$$ post that just went up in flames into cyberspace. GAH!!! Don't ya hate it when that happens!

So instead of retyping..I will just share the good stuff. No Project 365 photos...the post would die in shame..

but I will share my 2 pager LO I did Sunday. I think sometimes we (as scrappers) get caught up

in all the embellishments and forget to just let our photos just do the job. I caught myself wanting to add "more" to this LO but everytime I did, it just took away from the story.

Credits

You Make Me Intensly Happy Kit by Lauren Grier

2 Many Photos 15 by Janet Phillips (Modified)

DJB Gimme Space and Impact Fonts

Click on the LO to read the journaling

Thanx for peeking in today

To say it's been a busy week would be an understatement. My Grandfather had some sort of mental breakdown. Medical terminoloy..."altered mental status". He was getting very hard to deal with this past couple of weeks and I had to send my daughter to my ex's to stay until I could figure out what was going on with him. Instead of things calming down with him, his behavior became more erratic and hallucinations more frequent (he was already taking meds for this). The MD he was seeing locally REFUSED to give any help and we ended up taking him to and ER that was not in this town to get him some psychiatric help. Good news is that he is now in a Geriatric Psych Unit getting evaulated and getting his meds sorted. Unfortunately he cannot come back to live with me. I just don't have enough help and it has put a tremendous strain on my husband and daughter and it's just not fair to them. We have already have a Nursing Home picked out for him that has the staff with the proper training and facilities for his special needs. And the good thing is that it is only about 35 minutes from our home.

It's been a beautiful day today. Hubby mowed the yard while I just vegged out in the recliner with the lappy and the tv remote. I have a couple of LO's in progress but can't seem to get into the groove to finish them and I have been too lazy to go grab the rest of my P365 photos off my camera for this posting..so you only get to see through Day 70.

Day 68 pays homage to my hubby's work boots. W/O them he would have a hard time taking care of us.

Day 69

It was a beautiful day and it gave me a chance to play with the manual settings on my camera.
Day 70
Me and my Mama were coming home from leaving my Grandfather at the hospitol and saw this weird tornado type cloud. It was just a weird rain cloud. She took it for me since I was driving.

It's been a long day so it's short and sweet tonite....

Just the photos.

Day 65 is my son's favorite chicken casserole.

Day 66 is a photo of my Grandfather.

Day 67 is me and my Mama. =)

Holy Moly...what an incredibly busy weekend! My Grandfather has went off the deep-end as best as I can describe it so it makes for an unhealthy atmosphere for my DD to be here so I have sent her off to her father's house until I get things resolved with my Grandfather. I went with my mother today to visit a different nursing home facility to see if it was any better than the last one he was in. OMG>>>the difference was night and day. I am so ashamed I even put him in the last one with this one being so drastically nicer. He has to be evaluated before going in, so we put in the call for that. The people who do that will come to our home to do it and if they feel he needs some onsite evaluation they will transport him there for us. When that is done, he can then go to the nursing home of our choosing. He does know that he is leaving here to go live in a nursing home so I don't feel guilty about that part of it. It is always just heartbreaking that a family member can get so far gone that you cannot help them no matter how hard you work at it.

Here are a few more catchup photos for Project 365.

Day 61 was my lunch, chicken quesadilla.

Day 62.

Ultimate Diva...Izzy.
Day 63.
Just me.

Well it seems like I am playing catchup with my photos this week. I am doing great getting them taken, it's just been a bit hard to get them uploaded to the blog. I actually have all done up and current but I will upload the rest of them tomorrow so as to not make this post so hard to load up.

My goal over the next week is to get my LO's caught up. I got Weeks 1-4 done and I sooo do NOT want to get so far behind that is seems too daunting of a task to do. I want it to be fun and not worrisome.

Day 57 is mini strawberry cupcakes ready to be iced. It has just become a tradition that me and Shaina just bake her birthday goodies..whether it's a cake or cupcakes or as in the case this year....Birthday Fudge.

Day 58 has Shaina not looking so happy...I just think she was tired. We had already spent the day skating and finally got to sit down to enjoy her Birthday Fudge and sing Happy Birthday to her.
Day 59 brings us to some silly girls.
Shaina on the left and Cheyenne on the right.