Great news!!!

Guess what?!?!? i got an email a couple of days ago saying, "welcome!!! you're now a part of

i'm freakin' out!!! you know, being chosen for a design team to me is verification that your kreations appeal to others! even though you want to say what others think doesn't matter...sometimes it makes you feel good when they appreciate your art! what makes being picked for this team so great, too, is that gudrun and marit have already sent (and received!) congrats!!! i can't wait to start kreating!!!
in other scrappy news, tally's may kit will be out in SEVEN MORE DAYS!!!! it's called "like a box of crayons!" if i wasn't technology challenged, i could post a nice picture of it for you! tell you what: just go here to check it out!

I did a layout a few months ago with a picture of my dad holding a newborn ahmad (almost THIRTEEN years ago!!!) this picture is SO precious to me because (as i've told you before) i don't have many picture of my dad with us. div challenged us to use a buzz and bloom product without it actually being there! i used several of my b & b yummies as masks. make sure to check out what the other divas did!!! it's amazing to see how we get the same instructions and come up with such different art!!!
well, i have a few layouts and MOTHER'S DAY CARDS to finish!!! i know i SHOULD be hanging my head in shame but....ummmm...i'm NOT!!! this is the first occasion/holiday in the LONGEST that i've gotten THIS many done!!! so, i'm quite pleased with myself about my progress!!! plus, i bathed the little boy this morning, washed his hair and fed him...what more do you want? enjoy this day!

i'm scared

sooo, john and i were having a discussion about mother's day...well, specifically what i wanted for mother's day. since i'm experiencing double jeopardy (can't fit anything in my closet + in denial about my TRUE size), i said, i really need some clothes. hubbs eyes lit up and i think he even drooled a little. he was like, COOL!!!! i'll get right on it. just then, i came out of the coma. i mean, what was i THINKING, entrusting my husband with the TREMENDOUS task of shopping for me!?!? would he spend too much? would he remember that his wife wears size "BIG BOOTIE"?!?! more importantly, would the clothes be CUTE?!? he came back from the mall smiling...and i'm more afraid than ever. so, if i upload pix from mother's day and i'm wearing scrubs...YOU KNOW!!! he either bought a size 10 and i choked him to death and i'm trying to get accustomed to prison wear or it was just UUUgly and i "mistakenly" dropped the staz on right in the center of the left pants leg!
i'm so excited because i spent a few hours today making mother's day cards. i DON'T DO cards!!! i don't know what the problem is...i'm just kreatively challenged when it comes to cards and minis. but, i decided to stop avoiding cards and work it OUT!!! i think i did a pretty decent job! 7 down; 4 more to go! take a look:
for my sweet friend, julie whose not a human mommy but
is a kitty mama!!!
i think this one is going to my mom in florida
for my secret mommy in the mother's day swap at tally scrapper

for my mother in law

this is for one of my scrappin' friends...can't tell you which
because she follows my blog!
another for a scrappy friend!!

and last but not least, a card for j (aime lynne) on her 1st mother's day!
i STILL think they should have named the baby LIL LEROY LEA but
he's still beautiful! ;)
in other news, i'm pretty excited about scoring this:
don't ask me why but i've wanted one of these forEVA!!! i guess it's because in my head (yeah, i said in my HEAD...yous wanna make somethin' out of it?!) i see myself not only being a proficient scrapper but also seamstress, crochet-er and photographer. i see me doing all of this while the birds and the squirrels sweep and fold the clothes (wait...think that was cinderella). but i really am obsessed with these body forms. this one is a little taller than kea (a little over 2') and it's cast iron....awww, divas...i am in L-O-V-E!!!! i haven't even brought it to the back to my studio yet. it's not that i think my dirty room will swallow it never to be seen again (well, that IS PART of the reason!). i just sit at the computer and everytime i'm at a loss for words i look over at it and...and...it INSPIRES me!!! that's what i tell hubbs. when he looked at the price tag

his eyes glazed over and i could read his mind: what the HELL is she gonna do with this? i just couldn't pass up this price! he may REALLY strangle me when i start sewing with FABRIC and it's a NECESSITY to buy the $150 body form...maybe i should wait a year for that, huh?
well, gotta go before hubbs finds me passed out on the living room floor and bans me from the computer for a week! later!!!

It's Because of Lent...

...that sweets don't appeal to me anymore! Even though I don't need sweets (I really need to stop eating COMPLETELY for about two months!), I'm kinda upset about it! Hubbs and I decided to give up sweets for Lent. And when you live in a place where we eat king cake twice a week for about two months, and beignets and/or donuts on the weekends...IT'S SERIOUS!!! For the first few days of the Lenten season, I was SUFFERING!!! We still have my and Keanohn's birthday cakes frozen, plus part of a 7up cake from my aunt's bakery. I'm pretty sure I heard at least one slice of cake call out to me in that first few days! But, I resisted and I got to the point where I didn't even crave them anymore. Where I didn't think about the girl scout cookies that Kimmie is supposed to send to me (wonder where my cookies are ANYWAY...hmmm!) fast forward to Friday. We went to my parents house so that hubbs could help my dad move some furniture. There were three Reese's cups sitting on the table. Not packs...the little itty bitty, individually wrapped cups...and I thought I would pass out. John was so tickled: "I can't believe you've lasted over a month with no sweet and you're freaking out two days before Easter!" I think they must have been related to the cake because they, too, were calling me...but I resisted. But, I had a plan! My plan was to stay up until midnight Saturday (which would have OFFICIALLY been Sunday!) and celebrate my self-control with a bowl of ice cream with a slice of cake. I didn't fall asleep; when the clock struck 12:15 (had to MAKE SURE I lasted the entire Lenten season!), I got down to business:I had it HOOKED UP!!! I was ready to get TO IT!! I didn't get a whole lot...we DID walk in the race earlier! I tasted the first bite and...it was HORRIBLE!!! I liked it less than I did the brocholi I had with dinner...and I HATE brocholi! Hubbs came in the room fifteen minutes later, expecting to find me licking the empty bowl and found this:
"What's wrong?", he asked. "It's nasty!", I replied. "Umm, well, I'm glad you're enjoying it." He claims that he thought I said it was nice (yeah...right!). I think he was just a little TOO involved in the T.V. When we go to my Grandma's for dinner later, I'm sure there will be about 15 cakes and pies calling for me (just think of me as the "Dessert Whisperer"). And I'm gonna try a slice...just to make SURE this isn't just a fluke. If I really don't like sweets anymore, it's cool! Maybe I'll lose the other 40 pounds off my butt if I can avoid them!
So, we did the Crescent City Classic for the second year. Even though I am SEVERELY out of shape, I can normally walk the 6.3 miles with no problem. But, the night before the race, Keanohn thought it would be HILARIOUS to hide ONE tennis shoe from each pair I own. So, instead of racing with a comfortable pair which was broken in, I had to walk in BRAND NEW shoes! Let me tell you something: do you see my jawline?
You may THINK that's a look of determination on my face; in reality, it's me begging God to give me the strength to NOT sit on the ground and play peek-a-boo with Keanohn until John came back to pick us up in the truck! I made it (in just under 2 hours!) ...by His grace!
I am SO sleepy right now! I guess I should be, since it's after 5am. I'll leave you with the first two layouts I kreated as a design team member at Tally Scrapper! Have a wonderful and joyous day!

cyber crop

we're having a cyber crop over at tally scrapper. because i'm on the design team (did you notice that SHAMELESS plug?!?!?), i had the HONOR of coming up with one of the games! this is the layout i completed for it:
i've SEEN the other games and challenges...DON'T MISS OUT!!! it lasts ALL WEEKEND!!!

you take the good, you take the bad...

...you take them both and there you have the facts of life! i feel like i'm stuck in a tv show right now! bad news first: hubbs comes home yesterday and says, well, there was a layoff at work today. my mind INSTANTLY processed that OTHER people being laid off doesn't affect our bank balance so that left him! what sucks is that he's worked for this company for TEN YEARS and they didn't care enough about him to give him TWO WEEKS NOTICE? how do you just call someone OVER THE PHONE and say, "by the way, don't come to work tomorrow!"?!?!? and they couldn't tell us this before we made the trip to texas this past weekend? i mean, i wanted to be there for my friend but MY house and MY family come first...that money would have stayed in the bank! i keep telling hubbs that they won't be blessed for how they handled him; i keep BEGGING him that if he's asked to return, to PLEASE not do so without a raise! we'll be ok, though. if i just stop buying supplies every TWO DAYS we'll be able to continue supplying our account! ;)
so, onto the good! i FINALLY cut the last relaxer out of my hair and i'm officially natural! it felt like FOR EVA to me, but i know women who say it took eight MONTHS for their hair to reach the length my new growth has reached in five. here's the new look:
this was while we were waiting for my best friend's wife to get ready. here are a few more pix from the wedding:
this is my best friend, emmanuel
my two handsome guys before the wedding

emmanuel and ethan waiting for mommy to come
yeah...no, he REALLY wasn't interested!!!
emmanuel and rochelle thomas
strange fact: this is my best friend's second marriage...his first wife's name was rachelle; my middle name is rachelle. i think he just LIKES having rachelles around him!
did you look closely at the sidebar? see anything different? i made the spring design team at tally scrapper!!!! i feel like i have to strike while the iron is hot! what am i trying to do, you ask?
trying to take over the WORLD, pinky!!!

p.s. i didn't get to finish the layouts for emmanuel and abena before we went to texas, so i'll just have to mail them when i do! the dinner for my parents was really nice. they were really surprised! hopefully we can do a big hoopla next year (if God spares our lives!) i DID get to visit ikea and i was kinda disappointed!!!! SO MANY things looked giNORmous in the catalog and doll sized in person; other items were just cheap! still spent over $100! i'll go back but it won't be so urgent next time! and this is a layout i did today:
this dude is SO funny!!! when i observed him pacing back and forth, i almost wanted to scream,"pimps up, hoes down!" but i know that wouldn't be very mommy-like!!! he DOES look like he's cussing somebody, doesn't he? i promise i'm finished for the night!

under pressure

my neck is SO tight right now! i'm praying for God to give me strength! my parents' 30 year anniversary is this week. i really wanted to give them a big to do, but we're unable. so, hubbs has agreed to cook dinner for them thursday. we'll just have them and my sibs over, maybe a FEW more people. the big blow out was cancelled because my best friend is getting married saturday in houston and i want to be there!!! he's been married before so it's not a big event...but, it's a big deal for me to be there. plus, i can't go to texas ANOTHER TIME without visiting ikea!!! we've already set money aside for me to shop. i HATE shopping (i love online shopping but i break out into hives when i THINK about going into a store!!!) but i LOVE a bargain. ikea is just like bargain CENTRAL to me! i've had emmanuel (my best friend) do some shopping there for us before but it's just not the same as ME being there (and maybe taking a picture or 75!). i also have a friend who was my best friend in high school who evacuated to texas after katrina. she lost everything, including all her memories. so, i've taken it upon myself to start an album for her since i DO have some pix of her from that time. i know i won't finish but if i can at LEAST give her the album, i'll be able to mail any additional pages. and what are we giving emmanuel as a wedding gift? you guessed it: an album. to make matters WORSE, my mojo is FLOWIN' right now. this is normally a good thing but it's killing me right now. i can't concentrate on my parents, abena or emmanuel because all of these "OOOOH, i can do THIS next!" ideas keep popping into my head! it's about 2:30 am right now and i need to be cleaning (i like to give the garbage men as MUCH trash as possible on wednesdays and saturdays!!!) but all i can think of is wedding layouts. oh, i left THAT part out: it has really started to bother me that i never finished our wedding album so i've been working on THAT, too. so, i'm gonna bother you all for some prayers right now: please pray for God to give me the strength to clean, entertain, scrap for us and others this week! i appreciate it!

team jim's tally challenge

the group i'm a part of at tally scrapper has a new challenge which was posted last night: the layout had to have the word "lucky" in the title. HA! how PERFECT is this? i kreated this in RECORD time:
after my dark thoughts of thinning out the willis herd today, it's NO WONDER i finished this in about 30 minutes!!!!