THANKFUL THURSDAY...

I haven't had the chance to post in a couple of days.
Been busy at Windy City and just catching up on some well deserved rest and relaxation and I have also been planning out my pages for my SOS crop on Saturday and trying to finish up my Birthday Acrylic Album, that I am running for the first time this Sunday. I have 4 people signed up for the class and I always get nervous when I run a class for the first time. Thoughts in my mind are...will they like the project? Will we have enough time? Have I provided enough instruction? Will they take a class with me again. I love creating classes and it is really hard coming up with ideas, tips, techniques and projects that people really want. I was very successful when I did the Holiday Acrylic Album and I hope that my Birthday Acrylic Album will do will too.
Here is alittle peek of the Birthday Acrylic Album...one good thing about my classes, I do provide a image CD so that my students can recreate the album on their own or maybe use a different theme.


I had a lot of fun creating this album and I hope that my students enjoy taking my class and as I stated before...will sign up for more of my classes.

On different note...My family was picked to do a Kentucky Fried Chicken Focus group and might I say, it was not only interesting but we had alot of fun doing it.
We had to video tape ourselves eating a regular meal prepared by me and then we had to video tap ourselves eating a KFC meal. The twins had a good time performing in front of the camera and the best thing...we received coupons to use for our meal (they even gave us extra for future meals) and we also received a HEFTY payment for our time and effort (I had to send them the taping, which I put on DVD). I love when I get to do focus groups that do not require a lot and we got to do one of the things that we love...eat and spend time together.

Off to bed now
Hugs & Kisses
Me

EASTER 2008

Happy Easter from the Coleman Crew!!!

We did not go to church this morning as we had originally planned with my mother...and I really feel bad about that. She ended up not wanting to go so we did not go either.
Started out the morning slowly as I made a big breakfast for the Coleman Crew...Eggs, grits, biscuits, sausage, fresh fruit and orange juice and after I cleaned up the kitchen from breakfast, I immediately started my Easter Dinner. I did not do anything big...Cornish Hens, dressing, greens (actually my mother made these and I just took them out the freezer), homemade mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce...almost like Thanksgiving.
While I was whipping all of this up...I also started to boil eggs so that Alexandre' and Allegra could do their Easter Eggs. After they were ready, we set everything out for decorating with the dyes and even some stickers. We also made cookies for the Easter bunny and set everything our for him...the twins think that the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus are good buddies and just like Santa, the Easter Bunny bears gifts to children. I had them lay down for their naps and just like last year...while they were asleep, I decorated and filled up their Easter Baskets with goodies and little toys. Rick helped out too and he enjoyed helping me since he missed all the fun last year (he was in the ATL)
Now I did take photos today of our happenings, but I did it with an instant camera so these photos are from last year... we did the same thing this year as last year so I see I am now setting a few traditions with my family for the holidays...





The kids were happy with their Easter Baskets and we just relaxed for the rest of the day. We talked to all of the grandparents over the phone and wished them a good day.
After dinner, I cleaned up the kitchen, got the kids ready for bed and went to bed myself
Happy Easter
Hugs & Kisses
Me

83 years young

Today was my dear mother's birthday and she made 83 years old today.
Rick had to work today so the kids and I went by her house and took her out to breakfast. Usually Allegra just wants toast and sausage but since this particular restaurant had Mickey Mouse pancakes she just had to try them. Allegra has never been a "sweet eating" baby like Alexandre'...but after today...she has changed. My baby girl ate all of her Mickey Mouse pancakes. Alex ate all of his, of course, along with my mother's pancakes...I do not know where he puts it all with his skinny self...actually, both Alex and Allegra are thin which is okay with me. They are on target and they wear the age in clothes(4t, 4 and some 5t)
We gave Grandma Nita her homemade cards along with a bouquet of flowers...and we just ran errands with her for the rest of the day. I decided to scratch the Easter outfits and just let them wear outfits that they had already that still had tags on them.
Once we were done with Grandma for the day, we went back home for naps and just relaxed for the rest of the day until Daddy came home. I almost started to let the twins do their Easter eggs but decided to wait until tomorrow. Last year for Easter, we went to Skinner Park and the twins participated in their first Easter Egg Hunt...it was too funny but they did get alot of eggs and they even won an Easter basket that day. The photos below are from last year when we went to Skinner Park for their Easter Extravaganza. My kids love saying CHEESE for the camera.





I am going to bed early for I have to get up tomorrow early to get everyone dressed for Easter...yes, clothes are already laid out but I need some beauty rest

Hugs & Kisses
Me

Finally...A day of rest and relaxation

That was need by all of us
We stayed in our pajamas and relaxed all day for the most part
We did go out just for a little bit with my mother as she wanted to buy the twins something for Easter. I really did not want her to make a fuss about it so we did not find anything today...which was okay with me. My mother bought the twins outfits last year for Easter. I think that is what she likes to do...buy their holiday outfits, whether it be for Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving...whatever.

What a difference a year makes as Rick was in Atlanta training for a new job with CSX railroad. He was away from us for a month and a half, came back and worked at CSX for about 2 months and then he quit. I wanted to strangle him but I had to remain steadfast and have faith and believe in him. It took him almost 4 months to find another job, which he only took for the health insurance and then he worked that job for about 3 months and then another month past before he found Progress Rail, which is where he works now. It is a division of Catepillar (based in Peoria) and he seems to really happy with this job...he says there is alot of room for growth and he is looking at moving up within this company. I am just glad that he has something steady and somthing that he likes in the railroad industry and we can get back on track.

Once we came back from trying to find the twins something to wear for Easter...we took baths and put on another pair of pajamas. Shame on us... but it felt so good. Rick ended up working overtime at work so by the time he got home the twins were asleep. I had mentioned to Rick that I did not mind if we did not get the twins new Easter clothes for we waited to late and everything was picked over...as always, he has left it up to me to decide about their attire.

Here is a photo of them from last Easter in their Easter best...I did a great job of coordinating their outfits, which is something that I always try to do.



Now today marks the first day of spring and I will be glad when we can get consistent with the weather.
I plan on attending the Mocha Mom's meeting tomorrow and probably hang out with my buddies.
Off to bed now

Hugs & Kisses
Me

Day 3 of Spring Break...

and we spent the ENTIRE day at a new kiddie place called MONKEY ISLAND and had a BLAST...of course I do not have any photos from the day but Alex and Allegra had a really good time

I NEED A NEW CAMERA...so glad my birthday is coming up soon...I really hope I will get one for my birthday



Monkey Island is a great place for kids to go and let off alot of energy (there are alot of bouncy houses and an large play scape area) and a place where mommies can hang out and catch up which is what I did with my Mocha buddies. Alex and Allegra was so excited to see all of their friends there and so was I...that is to see my friends. I only saw Alex and Allegra when the wanted to go to the restroom and I had to make them stop playing to come and eat a snack. We got to Monkey Island at noon and we did not leave until almost 6pm. Rick could not believe that we were there that long. Once I got home I immediately started dinner and was able to feed the twins, give baths and they were out like a light by 8:30pm. I love days like this. Rick and I stayed up to watch the news and Jay Leno...of course he went to sleep shortly afterwards and I am still up on the computer

I am off from Windy City until the next Monday so I will be totally relaxing and enjoying time with my family, catching up with laundry and I might even scrapbook a page or two or maybe I will continue with the reorganization of my scrap space or maybe I will just surf the web...anyway...it will be cool to just hang out for a few days without an agenda. My mother's 83rd birthday is this weekend along with Easter Sunday. We do not have anything extra special planned as all she wants us to do is attend church services with her and just spend time with the twins. It is so hard to shop for my mother for she has everything so time spent together is all that she really wants. I am going to stay up for a while and surf the computer and look at some of my favorite blogs. Eventually I will start posting some of my work for all to see...I want to learn how to scan and stitch as opposed to taking a photo of my work...I hope to learn how to do this really soon.

Hugs & Kisses
Me

In a few more days...

I will be off and I truly deserve it...

I always say that I will not know how to act if I had to go and work a real job and raise Alex and Allegra, take care of the household, and all of the other stuff. I will admit that it has been truly a blessing to be able to stay at home with Alex and Allegra for the past 4 1/2 years. Rick is truly "DA MAN" for making it happen for us and taking care of us...especially when times were hard when he wasn't working.



So I worked today but I was also fortunate to take a class earlier today with one of my favorite scrapping celebrities...Melodee Langworthy. I was so glad when Susan told me that we were going to have her teach during the weekend of CKU and her classes are awesome. She made the weekend a getaway to Chicago for her family. I created an Easter Themed album that I plan on using last year's Easter photos that I have not done anything with. This way, they will already be in a mini album...I will still do a scrapbook page too.



I am really tired from today so I will be off to bed as I work tomorrow...again...Rick is "DA MAN"



Hugs & Kisses

Me

IN THE MEANTIME...

I have been so busy these past few days...CKU came to the Chicago land area and I have been living at Windy City. For those of you who do not know, CKU stands for Creating Keepsakes University and it is where scrapbookers come from all over the world to take classes with scrapbooking celebrities, meet up with their scrapbooking buddies, shop and crop until they drop and just have a great time with fellow scrapbookers.
I was not able to attend as a student...that will happen for me one day but I was able to go to the meet and greet that CKU had for its students with Susan as we represented Windy City Scrapbooking. We ran into some die hard scrapbookers...customers of Windy City and also met other people who have heard about the store through word of mouth. My fellow SOS sister Latosha Cherry was able to attend and I had the pleasure of meeting Ali Edwards and Jessica Sprague. We actually drove them to the store on Wednesday night and we were so excited to have them. Ali started calling me her 'Political Partner' as she is a supporter of Obama. She told me that she had the pleasure of meeting him and was a fan of his. It was really cool having her in the store...she is so down to earth. Jessica is a sweetheart too. They are both so creative and have really done alot in the scrapbooking industry. Here are some photos that we took with them in the store.


Now I also had the sheer pleasure of meeting another famous person during CKU weekend....I was totally blown away to see Iyanla Vanzant at the CKU Meet & Greet. Susan had mentioned seeing another African American at the event and I was very curious to see who she was talking about...especially since there are not alot of African American scrapbookers. I did not see her initially but then she walked up to me and I was elated to meet her and all of that. I gave her all the information about Windy City Scrapbooking and even my own personal contact information. She did end up visiting Windy City Scrapbooking...twice and she is a scrap shopaholic just like the rest of us...I would love to scrapbook with her one day. I hope to hear from her one day and maybe we can do some great things for African Americans in relation to scrapbooking...hence...In The Meantime...
Rick and the twins are doing fine...missing me as I have been working alot of hours this week with the store being open until 11pm. My mother has been really helpful with keeping Alexandre' and Allegra until Rick gets. Only a few more days and things will be back to normal.
I worked the crop tonight so I am off to bed for tomorrow will be long
Hugs & Kisses
Me