In 6 Days

a decision is going to be made that is going to change and affect many lives. I am not making or looking for political commentary.....not trying to sway your opinion one way or another on this social issue.....simply looking for prayer and thoughts for all involved.

Almost a year and a half ago, a friend - one who had shared holiday tables and birthday celebrations - one whom my children love - one who had shared joy and sorrow - one who is loved my many - made a tragic, terrible and irrevocable decision. The outcome of this decision has left this friend eligible for the death penalty. On May 10, this case goes before a committee that will decide if the District Attorney will be allowed to seek the death penalty.

Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought someone I love would be capable of participating in something that would lead to this. "Things like that only happen on television" or "People like that only come from horrible families" or "I'm a good judge of character. I'd never be around someone like that." Guess what - all of those comments are crap! Things like this do happen and it could happen to anyone. We don't live in ivory towers where we're immune to depravity and the evil that Satan wrecks about our world. We are in the midst of it.

So, on May 10, and the days leading up to it....I ask that you would pray....that God's will would be done and His hand will be seen in this situation....for strength of soul for all involved....peace....compassion.....comfort.

Random Wednesday

My list -

I have dark circles under my eyes......

True friends have the capability of embracing honest, loving rebuke - not turning and running out the door.....

My kids take direction from their daddy much better from their mommy!

Keira's hair is getting curlier every day......

My husband.....well....he's great

National Scrapbook Day is coming!! I can't wait to play with paper...........

I'm France.....

I got this email from my dear husband.....pretty funny.....

GEOGRAPHY OF WOMEN
Between 18 and 22, a woman is like Africa, half discovered, half wild, naturally beautiful with fertile soil.
Between 23 and 30, a woman is like America, well developed and open to trade, especially for someone with cash.
Between 31 and 35, a woman is like India, very hot, relaxed and convinced of her own beauty.
Between 36 and 40, a woman is like France, gently aging but still warm and a desirable place to visit.
Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Great Britain, with a glorious and all conquering past.
Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Yugoslavia, lost the war and haunted by past mistakes.
Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Russia, very wide and borders are now unpatrolled.
After 70, she becomes Tibet. Wildly beautiful, with a mysterious past and the wisdom of the ages....only those with an adventurous spirit and a thirst for spiritual knowledge visit there.

There also was a part about what geographical location men are like, but it's pretty naughty, so I won't put it up here but if you're interested I can email you the whole thing.

Have a peace-filled day!

Children

So today I was probably way too hard on my children.....Kade had a terrible baseball game.....just watching the strikes roll buy....I told him I wouldn't buy him a corn dog unless he would swing the bat.....Keira wanted to wear clothes that didn't match....I told her people would look at her funny....made her cry and she told me she didn't like me.....I wouldn't have liked me either.......

Then I start blog reading and come across Amy's talking about something she saw on Oprah and The Invisible Children This is seriously sad.....we had a missionary at church who had been in Uganda and he brought photos and videos that he had taken of these children....these precious children...... these children who live daily in fear....these children who daily have nothing.......

So I'm pretty disgusted with me right about now......worried about strike outs and matching clothes....how easy it is to get caught up in the wordly 'junk' and forget how amazingly, wonderfully good I have it!

Off to hug my kids....................

Freestylin!

I decided to take the challenge posted by the incredibly talented artists that created the Freestyle Book for Autumn Leaves. The have a cool blog http://www.autumnleaves.com/freestyle/ where they have issued challenges to lift pages from the book. I don't have the book yet - :( but I was able to see and lift this great page by an artist named Severine (what a cool name!) Her's is titled 10 and mine is titled 7. The papers and embellishments are from a Jenni Bowlin kit which featured tons of fun Heidi Swapp stuff this month.

This was a really fun layout to create! Thanks Severine for your inspiration!!

Cuz I Can

I love 3 year old wit and wisdom.....you never quite know what you're going to get.

Tonight I was asking Keira if she wanted a shower or a bath...she told me to guess. "Shower?" Nope "Bath?" Nope "You just want to stay dirty and stinky?" Nope - I want to get in a tomato "What?!?!" I'm just kidding you Mommy, cuz I can.

I love it....nothing is impossible to a 3 year old mind...and this girl....well I'm sure if there was a way to get into a tomato...she'd figure it out!

I Tried Out for the CHERRY ARTE DT!

I love their papers!! If you haven't seen them you have to visit their site and check them out!

http://www.cherryarte.com

I made this tooth box for Kade from an Altoid Tin. He's started loosing lots of teeth and I thought it would be a great way to save them. He thought it was pretty "tight"....


It would be really cool to make it on to a Manufacturer's Design Team. I LOVE being on the Altered DT at ScrapAddict. The kits are amazing.....if you are reading this and you are not on Felicia's Altered Subscription yet...what are you waiting for??? There are some really cool kits coming up that you are not going to want to miss out on.

Joy and Sorrow

Today is my dear husbands birthday! Finally 36, finally the same age as me so no more "older woman" jokes. The kids loved giving him some new clothes and I got him a watch.....he of course asked for the receipt before he went to work just in case he decides to exchange it -- :)





Today is also a day that is filled with sorrow. It was a year ago today that our friend Tim was killed in a traffic accident. Greg and I were there with him, so there's joy in knowing that he is now in eternal joy, but even knowledge can't fill the gaping holes in your heart. Please pray today for Tim's wife and son....I can't even imagine their grief. As this day has been getting closer and closer I have been wondering what it would be like. I have a knot in my stomache, a huge lump in my throat and tears that are ready to roll. Truly the feelings are the same as they were the day it happened, although the shock has worn off. I know there are so many others feeling the same way today. Please just pray.

Let's Hear It For Wednesday!

What a gorgeous day it is here in SoCal. Worked in my vegetable garden this morning for a few hours.

Well, that's not my vegetable garden but it's pretty, huh?? Planted tomatoes, corn, zucchini, pepperocini, cucumbers, red and yellow bell peppers, jalapenos and some chives. I still have one raised bed that's empty so I think I'll try some experimental plants, like the chocolate beauty peppers or tomatillos that I've never been able to grow!


We survived Easter. Last year we had 60+ people here but this year I just wasn't up for it. I guess quite a few people were bummed since we've been holding our shindig for the last 3 years. One person even bought a chocolate fountain to bring. We ended up just doing family, which was about 20 of us and that was plenty. Maybe the big deal will happen again next year.

The birthday fairy must be smiling on me. Greg's birthday is tomorrow and he is the hardest person to buy for. His watched quit working yesterday so he had the battery replaced and it still didn't work!
Good news for me because now I'm going to buy him a watch. He said he'll get it himself but I am doing it! I think he'd like something like this.



Well that's all for now - have a peace-filled day!

Days 8, 9 and 10

Well, I am very bummed at myself that I am behind on my art journal entries........

But, I have kept up on the goal....in fact a Dr. visit on Friday showed excellent blood work and a little bit of weight loss.

I think in my effort to get caught up I have abandoned some creativity on these 3 pages and have totally not done justice to Rhonna's artwork.....Sorry Rhonna!!



I hope you have a peace-filled Easter everyone!

I Really Want to Meet This Woman!

Don't you just look at her and think she would have so much life experience to share with us?

I would totally love to sit down with her in Havana and drink some really black coffee and listen to her share stories of what I am sure is a very colorful life.

About ten years ago I was just three miles of the coast of Cuba, maybe just three mere miles away from this woman who has for some reason captured my imagination today!

A Little Behind But Still On Track!

I'm behind on the pages for my 21 Day Challenge journal but not behind on my goal!! I've been eating better!! In fact, today I actually wanted a tuna sandwich for lunch instead of a Big Mac with the kids!

Easter Vacation has officially started at our household. Both of the kidlets and I will be home next week. We're going to see if we can get daddy to play hooky with us and go do something fun!

Here's a great thought to start the weekend....Keira got it on a button at church

Seek Peace.....Live Peace

Into April

Welcome to April!

Do you ever have embellishments, papers, ribbons, etc. that you are going to 'save' for something special? I do....so while working on my Day 6 I thought "I'm special, I should use this on me!" So I did!! I broke out some of my coveted Basic Grey Urban Couture paper and some really cool leafy brown ribbon I picked up. Boy it felt good cutting into that! Now I only used a little...but this is all about baby steps, right??

Day 7 was so fun to do! I painted!!

I am so excited about having this piece of my artwork to enjoy after this is all done. And I am pretty doggone excited that it's been a week and I am totally caught up! That doesn't happen very often.

On homefront news, Kade decided to find out what happened when you take a piece of broken glass to an antique hutch....yes...he carved into my hutch! I have no idea what possessed him but he now has learned about sanding out scratches, fine sanding and varnishing. After working for about 4 hours on it yesterday I said to him, "Bet right about now you're wishing you hadn't done that." The look on his face answered for him. It took all the restraint I had not to snap pictures of him performing his penance...but I didn't.....

Have a great week!

{Day 5}

In five days of being part of this process I have already learned a lot. Some of the things are superficial and related to my goal - i.e. I don't drink enough water and I eat for comfort. Others go a little deeper - i.e. trust myself, take the risk, try something new. I've been doing that with these pages and last night I totally got sucked into Photoshop and started creating some things for fun...but then I decided to give Cafe Press a try and really have it out there as something tangible. (That's all in my first post of the day)

Moving on though, here is my page for the day. I've been trying to recreate Rhonna's designs but I veered off the color scheme today because this Fusion paper was just talking to me. I love that I got to use up some 'x' stickers!

I am Out of My Box!!

I did something today......I've been playing around with some digital images in the last few days and finally came up with something that I think is fun.....I've always wanted to do some kind of design work so I took a big step.....put myself out there and opened a shop at CafePress. I only have only design up so far but am working on some more and I'm totally excited about it. Even if I never sell anything I have put myself out there and taken the risk!!

http://www.cafepress.com/juliebergman

Check it out and let me know what you think :)

Learning During the Process

Yesterday I learned something about myself.....should have already known....but I eat for comfort and out of frustration. I was doing great yesterday but by 7:30 the kids had worn down my nerves and I headed to the ice cream cake for comfort! I really think writing it down will help!!

Many people have commented on how neat they thought the brown pages were. Actually I am using a photo album that my friend picked up at Aaron Brothers for 1.98 on their clearance table!! I'll post a picture of what I did to the cover in today's post. Also I included a look at how I am doing my journaling. At the end of the day I take notes and post feelings in the memo section next to my meal recap.









Once again the art is totally inspired by Rhonna! I admire you even more today than I did yesterday...I started trying to play with Photoshop last night and holy cow digital is hard!!




On a homefront note, Kade and I went rollerblading at 6am before he left for school and Keira just told me I must have got out of the grumpy bed this morning since I told her "no she cannot play Calliou on the computer until mommy is done blogging!"

Have a great day!!

i LOVE this challenge!

I feel like I am back in elementary school being encouraged to color out of the lines! I love scrapbooking, don't get me wrong, but I think that I try to be exact, kinda let my OCD take over. This challenge is going to be more than just a better eating goal for me.....I hope to be more free in my creating too and really just enjoy the process. Which I have totally been doing with these pages....hopefully by the end I will even be more free!!

Rhonna has created amazing digital images to go with the quotes each day. I have decided to try and recreate her images with my tactile supplies....which in itself is so cool because I am breaking out some of the old stash stuff that really needs to get used. Can't wait to see what she comes up with tomorrow!

Oh, by the way, the journaling is on the facing pages and lists everything I eat each day. Let's just say ice cream cake for dinner last night was a little embarrasing to write down....that's the point though right??


Title Page

The Challenge

I'm really excited about Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge. I am sooo enjoying the process.....not done with a lot yet but I do have the intro page to the album

and the page that I guess you would consider the title page. I journaled on the opposite page about my goal for the challenge....I need to eat better!


So I'm going to track everything that goes in my mouth for these 21 days....maybe actually having to write it down and be accountable for it.


On to other news - tonight was Daddy Night for Keira at school. She had to have everything "perfect"...the perfect dress, tights, shoes, hair....she's only 3!! I can't even imagine what it will be like when she goes to a prom. When Greg got home from work she took him into his closet to help him pick out the "perfect" outfit for him to wear. Oye vey!! Will have some pics tomorrow!

the 21 day challenge

Do you have a bad habit you need to break? Do you have a good habit you need to start? Then you should check out the 21 Day Challenge that Rhonna Farrer is hostessing.

The cool thing about this is that you get to do it in an art journal format to keep you motivated. This is the 2nd round of this challenge that she is hostessing....the first round looked cool so I decided to jump in this time.

I'm going to be posting on my blog as I try to develop and commit to my new good habit!

Wocka! Wocka!

I saw this cute Muppet quiz on Jen's blog....I'm quite surprised with who I turned out to be!

You Are Fozzie Bear

"Wocka! Wocka!"You're the life of the party, and you love making people crack up.If only your routine didn't always bomb!You may find more groans than laughs, but always keep the jokes coming.

The Muppet Personality Test