I am feeling good today!! I have been creating and it feels stinking good! Here is what I did!! I can't believe all the curls in Max's hair!! I miss them so much! Now he wants a mohawk...nope...I am so mean because I won't let him do it! I have also been playing with Cricut which up until now has been sitting on my table totally unused. Well I have been having lots of fun using a new cartridge making  lots and lots of flowers. I need a little spring in my life and nothing says spring like flowers. Planning out a project to use with them and I am excited to see how it comes out. I just need to keep this creating thing going because Abby's graduation will be here before I know it and I need to scrap lots of her pics!!

I have not blogged in forever. I have not really created in forever either. But there is a really good reason for me being so absent. On July 28 2010 I had surgery to remove a 24 lb. tumor. Yes you read that right! I had a tumor on my right ovary that grew to be 24 pounds and another smaller tumor on my left ovary. So consequently they removed the tumors and just about everything else too. People ask me all the time how did I not realize I had such a large tumor in my abdomen. I can't honestly say how I didn't realize it. I just thought I was fat....very fat. But when I started losing weight I just couldn't lose it in my stomach. I was frustrated but just decided to work that much harder on the abs. You wouldn't believe the number of crunches I did in a day!! My doctor said that because I lost so much weight the tumor had  no place to go anymore and started to cause all sorts of pain. Thus the trip to the emergency room and a very rushed surgery to remove it. At first they believed that it was cancerous and let me tell you that was one very difficult night to live through...the not knowing was unbelievably scary. But by the grace of God it was not malignant and I was 24 pounds lighter in a wink of an eye. Ok not quite a wink because it took about 4 hours for the surgery to be complete but you know what I mean. I feel wonderful....better than I have felt in a long long time. Now I know that things I had been feeling were related to the tumor...lovingly named Gertrude by  my husband. I have been working very hard to continue with my weight loss and to exercise every single day. I even joined a Zumba class! Now that is a hysterical sight to see. But it is fun to be with friends and laugh (alot).



I am just hoping that I can get back to where I was....just a little afraid that when they took "Gertrude" out that they also took my "mojo" Let's hope not!!!

So tonight this little guy...who if you all know him...isn't so little anymore, will be graduating! It is a bittersweet time for me because I just can't believe that 18 years with him have gone by so fast! He makes me so very proud in all facets of his life. I truly love what he has become...the man that he has become. I pray that Drew and I have taught him well....to go on to this next journey and become all that he hopes to be. May he never forget to keep dreaming and may he never forget to keep God in his life! I love this guy so very, very much! I will miss him deeply while he is away. But I know that this is life and this is what life is all about. Love them, teach them, guide them and let them go when it is their time to fly!

Congratulations Andrew Thomas Pingitore! You will go far....we just know it!! You make us so very proud and we love you so very much!!

So I didn't keep good on my resolution to keep up this blog and ummmm....the creating has been a little on the sparse side as well but I DID MANAGE TO LOSE 50 POUNDS!!!! That wasn't even a resolution I had made and it hasn't all been since the new year....more like the last 9 months or so but.... I DID IT!!! I kind of got all wrapped up in the weight loss and exercise that I forgot to keep up with the other stuff. However, this week I realized that Drew will be graduating in a little over a month and I seriously need to get some of his scrapping done!! It was nice to have some new pictures to work with from the prom and his beautiful girlfriend Anna. So this layout is of them dancing at the prom. The other layout was absolutely inspired by a song on the TV yesterday morning....Smile. I know it isn't a layout of Andrew Thomas but hey when you get inspired you get inspired. I think it kind of turned out neat....I took it of Drew while we were on the beach in Myrtle Beach. He thinks he looks like a walrus but he was very touched by the layout nonetheless!! So hopefully this will be the start of a whirlwind scrapping spree for me so that I can put a dent into all of those pictures of Andrew Thomas.

Life has been busy and there is way too much to try and catch everybody up on but lets just say that life has been very good for us. Andrew Thomas will be attending Washington and Jefferson College in the fall and playing football. A life long dream of his is about to be realized! I am going to miss him like crazy but I am not allowing myself to wallow at the moment. Too many things to do and cherish before that time comes!

Maddie is doing very well too....she works too much and has put a lot of pressure on herself this year but she finished up her junior year at UofR and I can't even believe that I am saying this...."I have a senior in college!!" I certainly don't feel old enough for that...but it is true!!

Abby is finishing up her junior year and doing quite well too I might add. She will be my senior in high school girl next year...can't believe that one either!!

Max is Max....doing quite well in school, finally learning how to write neat and growing like a weed!! He is going to miss his big brother more than anyone so we will have to make sure his days are quite full next year so he doesn't realize it so much!

Thanks for checking in and for those of you who kept pestering about some new stuff...I hope you like it!!

So today I am 41....I don't feel 41 and I don't feel at all bad that I have made it to the 40+ ers as my husband informed me this morning. I am embracing a new year of life and I am going to enjoy all that it brings my way! I get a little sad though thinking that the woman who gave me life is no longer here with me to celebrate but I am always thankful for what she gave me and still gives me today as everything that I am is because of her!

What I am I doing to celebrate this day...well, I haven't really thought about that yet. The kids are so busy with school and extras and as always money is a little tight after the holidays so I really don't want to go out to eat and waste money or sabotage my diet. I know that my sweetheart is going to make me a cake with his new mixer from Christmas and I am a bit excited about that. Other than that I think it will be a quiet night at home with my family whenever they get home and a Sabres game. Maybe even pop some popcorn! Oh and maybe even some special hot cocoa. I don't need a lot to make me happy!!

Saturday though I am going to get my hair done. It is a long awaited reward for getting something taken care of last year that I had put off way too long. SO I am going to get my hair cut....I am thinking short because right now it is down to my butt and the only way I can stand to wear it is a pony tail. So I am thinking of going drastically different! Let's see if I have the guts to do it!

And I have been faithful with my resolution of creating everyday. I have started a long term project of a beautiful afghan in a creamy oh so soft yarn. It is done up in little 4x4 squares of which I have to make a ton of! Then painstakingly sew them all together. I usually just crochet one piece afghans so this is something different for me but I really think the end result will be so worth the work!! I also scrapped this adorable photo of my cousins daughter and grandson. When I received it in their Christmas card this year I just knew that I had to scrap it. And....I am thinking of opening an ETSY store. I had been very successful on EBAY when I had my store but I just  needed a break and ended up closing it. This time I am looking more at making embellishments and little pieces for scrapbooking rather than the larger projects that took so much time and stressed me out. I am still not sure but I am in the thinking process of it now. I will have to research further to see if it would really be worthwhile.

So I thank you for stopping by today and I hope that you have a wonderful day filled with many blessings! The sun is shining here and we are over 30 degrees...God is really smiling down on me today!!

Oh My!! It has been so long since I have created a layout! I felt so rusty at first but I think I finally got myself in tune with my inner creative me! I had this picture of Max and Abby sitting on my desk for months...I loved the picture...their tan faces, the warm sand background. It was a fitting picture to scrap after the nasty weather this past week and the cold and snow....and a long time away from sun and warm and sand!! That is why I named it...."Dreaming of those Summer Days" I have to say too that I was inspired to create this because I actually got onto Coordinates Collections yesterday for the first time in forever and found their "In with the new and out with the old" challenge. Use something new and something old....I have plenty of old and I just so happened to go to JoAnn's after Christmas and picked up these pretty papers from K&Company. So I finished a layout, completed a challenge and actually posted it on my blog. How is that for keeping up with my New Year's resolutions?

This is our Christmas tree that just put outside the morning of the storm...by nightfall you couldn't see any of it!
My picnic table is under there somewhere...today you can't even see that there is anything there!


I really thought that we were going to have such an easy winter this year. I mean we didn't have hardly any snow fall during November or December. And I laughed because my brother in Nebraska and my sister in Kansas had far more snow then we did which is pretty unusual. But alas, I joked too soon and we were hit this past weekend with more than 3 feet of snow in my backyard. And to this day it is still falling although not as much but definitely filling up the driveway yet again. I am not a fan of snow or should I say cold weather...I am just so much happier when it is 80+ and sunny but I am not going to let it get me down this year. It is beautiful to look outside in the back where it has been untouched and it is so pretty to watch it fall outside the window...kind of like I am in a snow globe. SO I am going to enjoy the beauty of it for now and try to remember that eventually it will melt!!