Me: our fresh wreath

Jalen: a plate

Jordan: the skylander portal of power

Troy: blue glitter ornament

Day 16, Blue

Me: a new ornament from FabuLisa

Jalen: blue water bottle

Jordan: blue skylander

Troy: snowglobes

Day 17, Hobby

Me: i love making stuff especially using washi tapes and baker’s twine.

Jalen: Club Penguin

Jordan: 3DS

Troy:

Day 18, Sport

Me: just a little driveway game we like to play called BIG RED BALL.

Jalen:

Day 19, Wrap

Me:

Jalen:

Troy:

Day 20, White

Me:

Jalen:

Day 21, Green

Me

Jalen:

Day 22, Red

Me:

Day 23, Treat

Me:

Day 24, Light

Me:

Day 25, Tradition

Me: we always make the boys wait at the top of the stairs until I tell them they can come down.  They are eyeballing the goodies santa left on the coffee table. :)

Day 26, Book

Me:

The boys and Troy seemed to have lost interest in the photo a day project so I’ve stopped pestering them to participate.
Yesterday I spent several hours doing small photo collages and re-sizing pictures to have prints made at target today for my December daily. The prints look pretty good, but some are just meh. I guess you can’t really expect much for $.15 a print. Just a day left in the December and then I’m starting P365+1 in twenty twelve!
Do you want to join our group? We are using Katrina Kennedy’s prompts and posting in our Facebook group. Let me know if you want to join in and I’ll add you to our group. Katrina even joined our group. :) I am glad to read that the prompts are just that, prompts. If you need inspiration for your shot, use the prompt. If you are moved to capture something else, then capture it.
Thanks for stopping by!
Love Love and Blog you Later,
Joscie, rhymes with bossy :)

I got another call from the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry for further information and for further testing.  I gave maybe 8 vials of blood while the boys averted their eyes.  I am now waiting for a call back to see if the Doctor thinks I am the best match for the patient.  The patient, by the way, is a 63 year old woman whose marrow is just not functioning for her.  The outlook is a 60% chance of recovery for her.  I am excited, nervous and willing to go through this proceedure to hopefully help her out.

We had a hail and farewell (actually just a farewell) for Troy’s CO on the ship.  It was at the Hickam Officer’s Club on a  Mongolian Barbecue night.  If you’re not familiar, Mongolian Barbecue is like a buffet, where you fill up a large salad bowl of raw ingredients, veggies of all sorts and then toppings like brown sugar, chili flakes, garlic, ginger, olive oil, oyster sauce, and meats too like thinly sliced beef, chicken, turkey and or shrimp.  You pay by the weight of your bowl and then you take it to the big grill area.  The cooks cook up your food  and call your number when it’s ready.  This is not a good situation for anyone with a food allergy like peanuts or nuts because your neighbor’s sauces or ingredients might mingle with yours ( I had to pick out a chili flake covered broccoli that found its’ way to Jordan’s bowl).  After the main dish is cooked, you can add as much rice, noodles, bread, butter and fortune cookies to your tray.  Classic event of the night? my fortune:

I was on the look out for a new dress to wear to a “Dining Out” for Troy’s work.  I ordered a dress online from a website called eshakti.com.  It is a great site.  You can order customized dresses for not very much more than the regular affordable price.  Since I tend to have a difficult time finding clothing that fits well, I opted for the custom fit.  I plugged in my measurements, selected a longer length for the skirt… and while I was at it, I ordered another dress and top.  These items arrived in a little teeny tiny box, each item folded and wrapped in cello envelopes. From India. I had to press the dress because the darts were a little wonky, but after all, I really love it.  I chose this dress because I already had necklaces, earrings, shoes and a bag to go with it…

it was a fun time, although a bit too much standing in heels for my taste.  The boys stayed with my mom for the evening.

While our car was in the shop I wished we all had bikes we could ride to run errands on.  Jalen never really had a chance to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels and he is now mostly too big to ride his 20″ bike.  Jordan’s little bike is too small for him and he doesn’t know how to ride without training wheels either. and it’s so small he’d fall behind if we rode anywhere over a distance. SO. I have been window shopping online for bikes and bike solutions for our family.  I have been wanting a trail a bike and this past weekend we located one on island.  Troy and the boys went down and picked it up.  It’s a cute little bike that connects to the back of my bike.

We did a test ride the other day. Jordan was a little nervous because we were riding pretty fast for his taste.  We rode again today, several times around the block.  We both enjoyed it.  Let me say, I can tell when he’s pedaling and when he’s not and when he’s acting crazy and moving around too much in the back.  Troy snapped this picture of us and we rode by.  And if it looks like I’m dying, it’s because I feel like it, ha ha.

We went to the movies this weekend too.  We checked out the listings and saw that Born to Be Wild was playing.  In IMAX 3D no less.  We headed on down to the theater, plunked down $36, picked up some popcorn and donned our glasses inside.

Jordan brought his elephant to the movie too. We really enjoyed it. and then 45 minutes later, it was over.  Can I say, I was disappointed. and I felt a little taken advantage of.  Really? 45 minutes?! anyway. atleast we all enjoyed the movie.

SO, that’s what’s been going on around here.  I hope you’re doing well out there in the world.  I’ll be back sooner rather than later with some scrappy projects and news :)

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy

We had a busy busy week last week.  Our 3 year old washing machine leaked on the floor of our laundry room.  The repairman said the main seal failed and he’d schedule a replacement washer to be delivered.  The new one was delivered and installed on Monday.  Our new bed was delivered on Wednesday.  The guys were so nice- they told me to keep the plastic on the bed and bedframe for 3 days to make sure we were suuure we liked the bed so we still had the option to exchange it.  We ended up loving it, so we took the plastic off 2 days later.  I also ordered a bunch of goodies online for Santa to deliver. slowly they are being delivered and wrapped too.  We always say we’re not going overboard but I think this year we mean it. ha ha.

In scrappy news, my 3*2*1*fire layout was featured at club creating keepsakes blog this week, yay!  For my Creative Charms projects here are the dies/punches I used:

• Tim Holtz Baroque Sizzix Movers & Shapers Dies
• Tim Holtz Paper Rosette Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die
• Cornflower Punch
  
• Signature Greetings Papertrey Ink

• Bow, Create-A-Bow Sizzix Bigz Dies

and now for my Pea Projects…

Hybrid Christmas Card

• Christmas in Your Heart Kitby Dianne Rigdon
• Glitter letters that I’ve had in my stash since 2007!
• Glassine Envelope
• Cherry Divine Twine
• Tiny Attacher
• Machine Stitching
• Stampin’ Up! sentiment
• Onyx Black Versafine Ink Pad
• Paper Trey Ink Double Ended Banner Die

Dream

• Banner Press 1, The Bestiest [kit] by Lauren Reid

King of the Driveway

• Full Of Happiness Bundleby Edeline Marta
• Bliss Alpha by Lauren Reid
• The Bestiest [elements]by Lauren Reid

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Love Love and Blog You Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy! :)

she has also release some super cute iPhone/iTouch wall papers. I thought it would be cute to make a little slideshow to put on my iTouch and on my cell phone (you can use it on other phones too!) here’s one frame I did… I emailed it and loaded it onto my cell phone and my iTouch.  The camera polarized filter is causing Jordan’s head to look blue in the cell phone shot, but I will get a better picture later.  Cute, no?!

here are two of my latest Picture of the Day shots…  On Sunday I asked the boys where they wanted to have lunch after church and Jalen shouted out Bubba Gumps!  and Jordan said, yes, I’ll have some blue Jello with my pizza. Okay, I was sold.  I love the accidental fish and shrimp… and it was also a great excuse to get more macaro(o)ns. mmm. so good.  Here’s my big boy:

I have to say, on Monday when I was at the commissary, I grabbed a bag of coffee thinking, I think I’ll send a bag to my pal Chrispea… No reason, just because.  and on my way home from the store, i stopped off at the mailbox.  When I opened it the aroma of roasted coffee hit me. it was so yummy and i thought who is sending me coffee?!  and it was from Chrispea. How sweet is that? and along with the coffee these milk caps in a super cute little envelope and this wood block J. how awesome?! love that girl. ps. Chris is almost done with her Chemo, so if you’d like to pray or think a positive thought for her that would be awesome!

Thanks for stopping by! Love-Love and Blog you Later!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

I am so excited to tell you, I got an email today inviting me to be a member of the Two Peas in a Bucket Digital Creative team! :)  Of course, I jumped at the opportunity!

I am committing to the 2010 project 365.  I tried a few years ago, but fell off the wagon.  This year, I am committing to get it done.  It is such a fun way to look back and remember daily activities, to share with our family and it also provides lots of great pictures to scrap!  Are you planning to tackle 365? or 52?

I am also trying to decide on a word for the year, guess I better hurry up and choose!

On Christmas night, Troy and I watched Twilight on iTunes.  I was enthralled.    we both really enjoyed it.  I mean, yes, there were some corny bits- i didn’t like how he ran and climbed the trees- but I really enjoyed it.  I mentioned that New Moon might be available on iTunes soon, but actually, it was still in the theater!  We went on the 26th to see New Moon.  sigh. I loved that too.  So we went back to his mom’s house and I downloaded Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn on the iTouch Kindle App.  I read twilight on Sunday, New Moon on Monday, and on Tuesday while we flew I read Breaking Dawn.  Yep, that’s right. I read book 4 by accident before book 3.  Anyway, I’m currently working my way through Eclipse, and loving it.

I guess that’s about it for now, I must get to work on some scrap, yay!  Thanks for stopping by and I wish you and yours a safe and Happy New Year!

Love Love and blog you again real soon,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy

I can’t believe it’s November. NOVEMBER! It was just september wasn’t it?  We had a great Halloween, all of us in our wizard wear, and we got a lot of cute, oh look, it’s the Harry Potter Family comments.  Dressing up is so much fun!  I had a thought that we should institute a all celebrations should be dress up events… but then we don’t really throw parties in our family.  Maybe I should change that too. ha. we had so much fun.  I am not happy with the rushed pictures we got on Halloween Night, so you know, I’ll be dragging the costumes out for more,  hopefully better picture taking later.  Our pumpkins were fun. Troy’s is the one on the left, mine is the polka dot one (of course) and Jalen’s is on the right.  Jordan’s is sitting up just out of frame, a clone trooper.

Last week I was knocked down in our wintery Hawaii weather, aka rainy, and my throat decided to get mutinous on me.  No fever, so I just held out and tried not to complain too much. (ha, as if) I did have to battle a little woe is me I want to cry like a baby for a little bit, but gave it some thought and figured I know people who are dealing with more than a sore throat out there. perspective is a good thing.

We are lucky enough to have twice a week trash pick up in our neighborhood and last week the city people dropped off recycling bins and information on our new schedule.  Since our housing area has a yard service that takes care of our green waste, we are only adding recyclable bins to our schedule. (i know you are fascinated, aren’t you.  on the edge of your seat? ;) )  I loved the look of these brand new cans lining the street.

so every other week they will pick up our #1,#2 plastics, glass, aluminum cans, corrugated cardboard and newspaper (minus glossy inserts) in these blue bins. I was very excited to drop two pieces of plastic in our bin this week.  We don’t subscribe to the newspaper, we read our news online or watch TV… but we do get the twice a week local interest type paper along with a Hawaii Military Newspaper once a week that will find their way to our blue bin.  I find it strange that they ask us not to bundle, bind, or bag our materials, just to throw them all mixed in the bin…but whatever.  We will still be carrying our HI-5 deposit bottles to the recycling center to get our $1.15 or whatever back.

Jordan’s class took a field trip to the firehouse and Troy and I were lucky enough to go as chaperones.  It was a fun trip. Hey, it was hot. and humid. but fun, fun.  Are you surprised to hear, my child went up to the front row and engaged the firefighter giving the presentation? Yeah, me neither. ha.

It was super cool that they set up a little hose for the kids to spray a cone and knock it over. Jordan about jumped on the nozzle to get it going, it was so funny.

One of Jordan’s friends at school has a Dad who is in the army and just returned home last week from deployment. I was so excited to see him home (he probably thought I was nuts) I was saying welcome home and we’re so glad to see you home… when he brought his son to school.  This week Wednesday is Veteran’s day.  I am going to celebrate it by making cards for Operation Write home.  There are so many family members that would love to get cards from their deployed service members, I want to be  a part of it.  check it out here.  I’ll also be participating in a blog hop on Nov 14. Do you want to join in on that too? check the blog hop.

So that’s what has been up with me lately. What’s going on with you?

While we were down in China town, we took a walk around the block for our very favorite Chinese treat, manapua (aka char siu bao).  My very favorite place to go is Char Hung Sut.  It’s the kind of place where you walk in and order from one person, another person runs and fills your order and the girl at the register scribbles the math on a stack of scratch paper. it’s just so good.

I know you’re going to find this hard to believe, but I procrastinated a little bit on making the welcome home banner.  I toyed with the idea of ordering a sign, Noel even sent me a link, but of course I waited too long.  I also entertained the idea of cutting vinyl and making a banner, if I could just stop off at a sign making shop and get a banner to apply my vinyl to… but in the end I decided to cut and sew a banner, on Sunday.

Jalen commented that our coconut tree did not have any coconuts and did we have to wait 3 days? (that’s a facebook my farm joke, btw)

We expected the ship to be pulling in around 830am-ish so we arrived around 8.  We had to park a good distance and I wanted to be sure we had enough time.  I let Jordan ride the umbrella stroller so i could load our goods on the handles.  There was a cool tent and seats set up for us to lounge while we waited for the ship.

I loved the reflection in Jalen’s glasses, you can see me right in the middle.

We watched as the ship pulled up.  Troy was not manning the rails, he said he had something to do inside the ship, I didn’t even ask what it was.  When the ships pull in from a deployment to Pearl Harbor, they tie a lei to the front of the ship.  It’s made out of plastic (i think it’s trashbags).

the boys held their umbrella signs, even though dad wasn’t on the outside of the ship…

Then we waited and waited, and Troy showed up, checked out on leave in his Tshirt and shorts with all his goodies.  Jordan got to give the first lei:

Jalen the second (and me last)

The boys went back to school on Tuesday and Troy fell in with our daily routine.  I got my new id card that I have been waiting for. I was so excited to see that the camera was mounted up high on the counter, at a flatteringly higher angle than the chair.  It’s the little things that help a girl out, ya know?!  Of course i can’t show you the id card, but it does look like me, so I’m happy.  Today’s errands included a trip to the pumpkin patch…

ha ha, just kidding. you know on the Wednesday before Halloween, the pumpkin patch is closed. and evidently the Navy Commissary is also sold out of pumpkins.  So we took a trip to Sam’s Club and picked out 4 non rotten pumpkins. ha ha.

and  have I told you, I love this man?

pumping my gas. **swoon** what a man.  and do you know what I did on Monday night? I was able to run out and pick up steaks for dinner, by.my.self! and I was able to come home and cook dinner while he bathed the little. **sigh** it is so good to be a family of four again.  We are enjoying and being thankful for all our many blessings.  I want to thank all of you who prayed for us and him while he was gone, I really really appreciate it!  Tomorrow’s excitement? I’m getting a long over due eye exam. and I’m not only buying new glasses, but I’m also getting sunglasses. prescription sunglasses. eeeeeeee! You lucky ladies who wear contacts or have been blessed with good eyesight have no idea.  For people like me, sunglasses require so much effort. I am such a lucky girl.  I’ll check in with my new eyewear when they come in, I can’t wait! SUNGLASSES! yay!

Thanks for stopping by, Love Love and Blog you later!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

Monday, Christopher Columbus Day, Jalen was out of school and it was also the release day of a new book he’s been waiting on, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the last straw.  I asked him to stand next to the cut out so I could get a picture. I snapped it, then I asked, Jalen, you’re not even smiling, are you not excited? He says, I’m trying to look like Greg!  I will say, these books are very boyish, with some pottyish humor and the character is sometimes rude, so we do discuss the choices Greg and other characters make and ask are those the same choices we would make? Oh, my goodness, and now that I am looking at this picture, please disregard all the wrinkles. (and crumbs in subsequent pictures, ha)

Tuesday brought a day to have lunch with my girlfriend FabuLisa at the Counter Burger.  They had a coupon for free fries with a purchase of a burger for all their facebook fans, so we cashed in those coupons for some yummy fries and good girl time.  I love laughing it up with FabuLisa, she appreciates good sarcasm when she hears it… :)

Wednesday is an early day for Jordan with pickup right after lunch, but he is sometimes still hungry, so we headed out for some drive through.  I asked him if he wanted to drive through, and he asked if we could eat at Daddy’s work McDonalds (translation: the McDonald’s on base at Pearl Harbor) sure son.  As we drive on the base and make that turn and see all the ships in a row, he says, can we go eat at Daddy’s ship?

(my heart breaks.  does he think Daddy has been working at the ship for the past 3 months and we just haven’t gone to see him?)  Honey, Dad’s ship is on it’s way home from Guam, it’s not here yet.

Oh, is he coming home tomorrow?

No son, just over a week and a half.

Oh, okay, can we have a picnic?

Okay son.

He munched on these apple dippers and fruit punch and enjoyed his lunch. (he has only recently found out that they give caramel sauce with the apple dippers)

and more Jordan funniness. this child picked up this little plastic bird which is a furikake (seaweed/nori) dispenser and put his mouth on it and started sucking it out. me: Jordan! him: what? I just wanted a little seaweed.  I made him hold up the chick for scrapbooking purposes. documenting the funny to get through the tough parts.

I bought some funny long grey and black stripey socks at target a few weeks ago. they are super cute and Jordan was the one who picked them out.  I pulled them out of the drawer and he immediately wanted to put them on.   I say, Jordan, these socks are longer than your legs.  no mom, I’ll look like the duelers on Wii Resort!  Okay, so i let him try them on. and they were truly longer than his legs.  I promised him I would take a look for some similar socks the next chance I got. I found these cuties at target and he was so excited to wear them right away.  He put them on and dueled around the living room. and then my mom called us to meet for dinner. and I can’t believe it, but I let my child go out with his blue and white shirt, blue shorts, black, grey and red socks and brown shoes. but he was so happy, i just had to smile and let it go.

we saw this freaky fish at the pet store. freaky!

we printed up the “rewards” from his leap pad tag reader. he’s getting pretty good with those scissors, both right and left hands.

how beautiful is this paradise I call home? I am blessed.

also one last tip.  If you’re a long time blog reader of mine, you may remember when we last moved, I (in an ultimately bone headed move) gave the power cable for my silhouette to the cable guy who was picking up my cable box… and didn’t realize it until I tried to set everything up at the new house. I searched and searched. but ultimately accepted that I had given away the wrong cord.  I emailed Quickutz and they sent me a replacement. I must say, I love companies who give good customer service. It makes me so happy to do business with them.  My tip is this: I now label my power cords with a white sharpie paint pen. no question what this goes with!

one last bit of scrap, I have a tutorial up at Miss Mint’s blog for Frankenbag!

check it out!

That’s it for now.  This week will be cleaning up and putting up welcome home signs (that are not made quite yet).

Thanks for stopping by, Love Love and Blog you later!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy.

Here is the vinyl waiting for attention.

vinyl mounted on canvas:

So I painted the outside first, then colored in… removed the vinyl and painted with black acrylic paint.  I know it’s not perfect, but I’m pretty happy with them :)

Super Luigi (I know I painted him a different color than he should have been!)

Bowser: I used my black copic brush tip marker. much more precise than paint brush. Love my copics!

and then these two I sketched on the canvas with the black copic and then filled in the paint.  You can tell I did ‘em without a copied outline, but I like these little mushrooms anyway! :)  The green is 1up (extra life) and the red is super (power up)! :)

Now I know after looking at those you’re thinking I’ll have a picture of them all mounted on the wall, right? ha! don’t hold your breath! The paint is still drying and then I have to mount. I just had to share… :)

I hope you enjoyed!  I’ll have some exciting new news to share soon too! I’ll be back again soon!

Love Love!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

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Fabulous, right?! It’s taken me a few days, but I am so thrilled with my results!  These are 3 18×36 canvases that I painted in a carribean blue acrylic paint.  The clouds are all cut free hand out of felt, stuffed and stitched.  The red felt hearts are die cut out of a sizzix die and handstitched with aqua embroidery floss.  I am so happy every time I see the little hearts fluttering :)

and before I even started with the clouds, I had already hung these ornaments in the entry way to my scrap space… the pompoms make me smile! :) I also hung some in the kitchen, but those don’t have pompoms, that idea struck after they were already hung up…

It’s beginning to look a lot like valentines day, eh?  I did a hybrid version of the valentine’s candy box this year (since there were twice as many to make) and posted the tutorial over at Miss Mint’s Blog.  Leave a comment or retweet it if you like it! :)

I’ll be celebrating my 2 year blogiversary on Feb 14!  I am so glad I jumped on the blogging band wagon, I have gained so much out of the whole experience!  I hope you are all having a great day and I can’t wait to come back and blog again. :)

love-love, Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

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