Saturday, June 13th, Michael received his 3rd degree black belt in American Karate. He started karate a few months before he turned 5. He earned his 1st degree at the age of 8. His 2nd degree at the age of 10 and now 3rd degree at 13. This past year he also earned the title of Assistant Instructor. This is a title given to students that help with lower belt classes - the students must be 15 years old. Michael earned this title at 13, because last year he assisted with 627 classes. We are so proud of him and his accomplishments.

I must start out by wishing my mother a Happy 80th Birthday! She is so special to all of us! She has 3 kids, 8 grandkids and 5 great-grandkids. We love you, Mom-Grandma!

This is a card that I made for my patient (the middle is a pin). She finished her treatments a couple of weeks ago and is officially a survivor! I am so proud of her!!!

The inside of this card reads: Hope your day bubbles over with fun.

........These are pics from Maddies tournament in Wisconsin. The team took first place (2 games on Saturday and 4 games on Sunday)! As you can see Maddie hurt her foot. She was going up for a shot and was pushed from behind resulting in her losing her balance on the landing (not to mention that the girl who pushed her landed on top of her). She was out the rest of that game and the following Championship game, but when the team won they made sure to include her in the celebration. This is a great bunch of girls and they have really come together as a team. Way to go Team USA!!

Just a few more cards that I finished. I challenged myself to use old techniques. Paint, chalk, stamps...I love new products, but still want to show my old ones some love.
It is hard to see here, but this card has some bling on it.

I used chalks and stencils from Pebbles inc. on this one.

I used my watercolor pencils, however I did mix in a new cuttlebug folder. All in all, not a bad day!

Easter Cards

These are some Easter cards that I made for my chemo patients. The one one the left was for the little boy, the inside is shown below.

School News

Wow 2 posts in one day! Just going through the mail - Michaels report card arrived with straight A s once again. Way to go, Michael, we are so proud of you. Earlier this week Maddie received news that a piece of her art work has been chosen to be in an Art show later this week. Art work from schools in the area is display at a nearby bank during the month of April. Maddie also got word today that her poetry entry won the Young Author Contest in school. Way to go, Maddie, we are so proud of you. My kids truly amaze me!!!

Finally some layouts and cards!

Okay anyone who knows my daughter knows that she is a tomboy. No flowers, frills, ruffle, scallop edges, bright colors (unless pertaining to basketball) and definately NO PINK! This "pink" karate shirt was given to Maddie by Mr. Kook (he is one of Michael's Karate Instructors). She has had a crush on him for sometime. My journaling will go something like this... (converstation between my husband and I)

Me: Look what Mr. Kook gave Maddie

Him: It's pink

Me: But it's from Mr. Kook

Him: But it's pink

Me: But it's Karate

Him: But it's pink

Me: But it's from Mr. Kook

Needless to say she wore it the next day. I took advantage of the pink shirt and used every pink embellishment that I have been wanting to use and ta da - this was the end product!

The above 3 pages are just some from the past that I did. I figure anything that I did before blogging is fair game on here!

The 3 layouts above are from a kit that a friend of mine put together. Let's all give it up for Carrie!! Carrie teaches kids classes at the LSS that I use to manage. I was ordering the kits for Maddie, but decided to use them myself. I just LOVE her stuff!!!!

Chemoangel.com - this is a site where people who are going through any kind of chemo can join and they will be assigned an angel. There are several types of angels - I am a card angel. Once a week I send a card to my patient. Currently I have 2 patients. One is a women who has breast cancer (the above cards were made for her) and a 4 year old boy with luekemia. I encourage all of you to check out this site and become an angel. One card a week - that's it.

Yeah Maddie!!!

My daughter's basketball team played in a tournament this weekend. They won both games on Saturday. On Sunday, they had to play the same team twice. The first game basically was a wash. Good thing, because they lost. However, the second game was for first and second place. They won 25-24!! I am telling you, the last minute of the game was the longest minute in my life! Yeah Blast!!
During Saturdays game Maddie jammed her thumb. Sunday we taped it up and off she went. Today off to the Emergency Clinic. Thumb not jammed - but fractured. Oops. We were sent home with a temporary cast, a note for 2 weeks out of PE, and instructions to ice, elevate, motrin and rest. We did as we were told, right after we went to Judson University in Elgin where Maddie had tryouts for a travel Basketball team. It is a 5th and 6th grade team, but Maddie decided to try anyways (can't beat the experience). Well, she gave it everything she had with the one hand that she had. The coach told us he would let us know the results on Wednesday. After tryouts I was asked by the coach to hand behind. He asked me to do everything possible to help Maddie's thumb heal, because he was taking her on the team!!! I am so excited for her! She has a talent in this sport that is so foreign to me. I love to watch her play. She amazes me. This is a great opportunity for her. Congratulations to my little girl!!